


Crossings

by alatarmaia4



Series: alatar's self-indulgence zone [1]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, my god this may be the most self-indulgent thing i've ever written, will that stop me? no
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-25
Updated: 2017-12-29
Packaged: 2019-01-22 17:50:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 27,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12487408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alatarmaia4/pseuds/alatarmaia4
Summary: A handful of characters, from a world very different from the Emon known to Vox Machina, stumble their way across a very rare kind of boundary.In which Modern AU! Vox Machina (or some of them) meet the unaltered, straight-up D&D versions of themselves.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Phoenix Burn](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7949425) by [seimaisin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/seimaisin/pseuds/seimaisin). 



> THIS IS SO SELF INDULGENT  
> no but literally i write stories like this in my head for literally everything i love it
> 
> also this story is, no joke, the reason i drew my big planned layout of castle whitestone

Vex stumbled over a tree root, and her heart leaped impossibly higher into her throat. The movement jostled Percy, accidentally, and he made a high, choked noise of pain. Glancing down, Vex could see that his hand - the one that wasn’t held over her shoulders - was still clamped over the dark, bloody spot on his coat. 

“Sorry,” she whispered, and kept walking. She could hear nothing in the forest. Only the occasional noise of an animal passing or the crunch of leaves under her and Percy’s feet reached her ears. That didn’t mean Ripley wasn’t close. Where was the stupid portal?

“Where are we going?” Percy wheezed. Vex bit her lip and didn’t reply. She couldn’t be sure this idea would even work. “We should call Cass - Cassandra.” His words were broken up by the occasional grunt of pain. Vex hoped he wasn’t bleeding too much. Ripley had gotten in a lucky shot - she’d barely gotten Percy away in time to avoid a second. 

“My phone’s dead.” ‘Dead’ as in cracked with a bullet hole through it, which was really the same thing. She knew Percy didn’t have his, either. He’d realized three blocks into their walk that he’d left it at home. At the time, they’d figured they would be fine without going back for it.

“Vex, what - just tell me-”

“Do you remember Pike?” She interrupted. Her heart was still beating fast as as a rabbit’s, and her thoughts were racing. Pelor and Sarenrae and all the rest, please, she hoped it would work. 

“Yes? Of course I-” Percy sounded confused. 

“The  _ other  _ Pike.”

Percy was silent for a moment. Then he said, in tones of deep revelation,  _ “Oh.” _

The ‘other’ Pike was one of the oddest things that had ever happened to their small friend group. Vex knew that magic still lingered in the corners of the world, sometimes in unexpected places; but nobody really knew how to use it anymore. There were stories, and  _ maybe  _ the odd artifact or two that still worked in wonky ways, but nothing big.  _ Definitely  _ nothing as big as a portal to another world which produced tiny, mace-wielding Pikes in full plate armor. 

It had been a  _ very  _ weird week. A week not because they’d wanted the strange, tiny (gnomish, had it been?) Pike to stay and crash the camping trip they’d been planning for weeks, but because they’d had to track down precisely where in the forest she had somehow crossed over. They’d nearly given up on it until Vax had put his foot down and found himself stepping on sparse summer grass instead of the tall springtime flowers of Emon. 

Pike had gone back over to her side, and that had been that; they hadn’t seen her or heard from her again. Now, months later, Vex could only hope that the portal was still there, and that she could find it again on a dark autumn night.

“You think Ripley can’t follow us there?” Percy sounded almost despairing. Vex didn’t like it.

“She’ll have a hell of a time finding us, at least,” Vex snapped back. “It’s not far from here.” That was a lie - she had only the faintest idea of where it was relative to them. But Percy wouldn’t be able to walk much farther, even with her help. They  _ had  _ to get there soon. 

They walked for what felt like hours. The night grew blacker around them. Vex twitched at every faint sound - owls hooting, things scooting through the underbrush. Every breeze was someone just behind her, every scuffle a gunman taking a proper stance. 

“Vex,” Percy said, pleading, just as Vex rounded a tree and stepped in a snowdrift.

Vex gasped, yanking her foot back automatically and nearly sending them both off-balance. Before Percy could finish asking “What is it?”, she hurried forward, planting both feet solidly in the snow.

The forest around them transformed in a blink. Tall, sturdy evergreens and skeletally leafless trees surrounded them, dusted with the same fluffy white snow that carpeted the ground and reflected what light came from the cloud-covered sky. Looking over her shoulder, Vex saw more of the same behind the two of them. In the very corner of her eye, there was a trembling vision of dark shadows and fall-colored leaves, but as soon as she turned to face it, it was gone.

“Good god,” Percy said, for a moment sounding exactly like his usual self.

“I told you it was close,” Vex said, allowing herself to sound as smug as possible. “C’mon, move. I don’t want to be near this in case we  _ do  _ get followed through.”

It was more difficult to walk through the snow, given that it was almost a foot deep. Vex’s shoes were quickly soaked through, and her jacket didn’t do as much as she would have liked to keep the cold out. Percy, too, shivered and kept close to her side, even in his expensive blue duster. 

“Wait,” he panted eventually, and Vex stopped dead. “We don’t know where we’re going. We should - urgh - stop and think.”

“If we sit down we’re going to freeze to death,” said Vex, who had read a great deal of boring realistic fiction novels during her time at Syngorn. Her father’s standards for literature meant they’d been the most interesting options. “Are you okay?”

“I don’t think so,” Percy said. His voice was strained, and his knuckles were white where he clutched at his bloody side. He looked unusually pale, even for him. “I think - I think Ripley is a very precise shot.”

Vex winced. She’d been trying not to think of everything that could go wrong with a bullet wound, especially a gut wound. “Percy, I don’t know if it’s  _ safe  _ to stop. There has to be a city somewhere near here.” She tried not to sound like she was begging, but it didn’t really work. “Just for a little longer.”

“Vex, I can’t-” Percy winced, and minutely readjusted his grip. “I think something’s wrong.”

“We can get help-”

“You should go find someone.”

“I’m not leaving you here by yourself!” Vex gaped at him. “Are you crazy?”

“One of us is going to have to, and I can’t-”

_ Thunk. _

Both of them jumped as an arrow appeared to sprout from a tree directly in front of them. It vibrated from the force of the impact, slowly stilling. Vex stared at it, wide-eyed, as if the strange greenish-blue feathers it was fletched with would somehow reveal what, precisely, the fuck was going on.

“Who are you?” A voice demanded from behind. Percy jumped again, and Vex almost lost her grip as she spun to face the speaker.

“What on  _ Earth, _ ” Percy said blankly. Vex’s thoughts were running in similar directions. She hadn’t expected to see  _ herself. _

“Or  _ what  _ are you?” The other Vex asked, in a voice that sounded just like Vex did in recordings. Vex only stared, taking in the details. Her other self - her counterpart, or doppelgänger - wore what looked like leather armor, and a fur-lined cloak fastened with some kind of colorful clasp. She was holding a strange vine-entwined bow with an arrow nocked and drawn on the two of them. More importantly, there was a  _ fucking armored grizzly bear  _ just behind her, growling. “Shapeshifters?”

“We’re not -  _ no,  _ I swear, no,” Vex said, the words tumbling out. Privately, she decided to call her counterpart by her full name, or else it would just be weird. “Don’t shoot.”

“That depends on how fast you can give me a good answer.” Vex’ahlia smirked. “I missed on purpose the first time.”

“We’re friends of Pike,” Vex said desperately. “We met her a few months ago - she wears a lot of armor and we helped her get back, and I’m sorry but we really needed help-”

Vex’ahlia’s brow had creased in confusion, and her draw on the arrow slackened a little. “Hold on,” she interrupted. “A few months ago, like when Pike went missing and said she’d ended up on the other side of some portal?”

“Yes! We’re from that side.”

Vex’ahlia scanned them both from head to toe; whatever she was looking for, she seemed to find it, because she stood up straight and put the arrow back in her quiver. The bear behind her growled, almost...questioningly.

“Trinket, sit,” Vex’ahlia said. Vex’s mouth dropped open as the bear sat, and Vex’ahlia approached them.

_ “Trinket?”  _ She said. “That’s  _ Trinket?” _

“Yeah,” Vex’ahlia said, wrinkling her nose in a way that said it should have been obvious. “Why, is he different for you?”

“He’s just a very large dog,” Vex said weakly. “A  _ bear.  _ Shit.”

Vex’ahlia grinned smugly. This close, Vex could make out far more details. Both the purple cloak and the fur that lined it seemed well-made, even expensive, and the clasp that fastened it was some kind of multicolored scale design bordered with gold. There was another bow slung over her shoulder, wood painted blue in a way that made it look like a sky with wisps of white cloud. There were feathers in her hair of the same kind as those that her arrows were fletched with, tucked behind one strangely pointed ear. A largish gold earring, set with a deep blue stone, hung from the same ear.

The leather armor that covered her torso seemed, oddly enough, to be lightly frosted over in places. She wore a few strange belts, one that held her quiver and one with a few dangling pieces that didn’t seem to attach to anything at all, though they looked like they were meant to be fastened to something.  _ Her  _ shoes were wet with snow as well, but made of leather similar to her armor, and Vex could see that she was wearing thick socks underneath.

Aside from the strangeness of her outfit and her weapons (and her  _ bear _ ), she looked in all respects even more identical to Vex than Vax was. With the exception of the ears, maybe; and maybe there were things under all the fancy clothes that would differentiate her further. Vex hoped there was.

“Why exactly are you here?” Vex’ahlia asked. This close, her eyes easily found the bloody stain on Percy’s coat, and her eyes widened. “Nothing good, huh? Here.” She reached out for Percy, snapping her fingers and then gripping his shoulder. 

Vex was about to ask what she was doing when Percy jolted and gasped, eyes widening. Vex’ahlia kept a firm grip on his shoulder for a few moments, and then allowed him to wrench himself away. 

“What was that,” Percy gasped out, looking almost frightened. Vex clutched him closer, suddenly worried on his behalf. Vex’ahlia looked blank, hand still hovering in the air.

“You were hurt,” she said. “It was just a Cure Wounds.”

“Cure-” Vex said, “You mean-?” Percy, tentatively, let go of his side, and then let go of Vex, looking thunderstruck. “You can do  _ magic? _ ”

“Duh,” Vex’ahlia said, and then clapped her hands together. “Oh, right! Pike said it was super uncommon on your side, yeah?”

Vex only nodded, dumbfounded.

“Weird,” Vex’ahlia said. “And you never said why you were here, either.” 

“It’s a long story,” Percy said tightly. Vex’ahlia crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows, projecting a purposefully unimpressed air. She looked him over, opening her mouth as if to deliver a scathing retort; but her eyes caught on the tear in his coat where Ripley had shot him.

“Is that a  _ bullet  _ wound?” She asked, sounding startled. “Who shot you?”

Percy’s mouth tightened. Vex decided to intervene. “It really is a long story,” she said, “and not a great one. It’s - well, I don’t know if she exists here. We’re trying to get away from this woman, Ripley.”

Vex could not have possibly anticipated the way Vex’ahlia’s eyes went wide or a scowl curled her mouth. Her counterpart tipped her head back and groaned in a thoroughly disgusted way.

“Not Ripley  _ again, _ ” she spat, raising her head again. Vex glanced at Percy, who seemed just as confused as she did. “Ugh. Come with me.”

“What for?” Vex said, at the same time that Percy asked, “Where are you going?”

“Into Whitestone,” Vex’ahlia said. “Unless you’d rather stand in the forest forever.”

“Whitestone?” Percy, who had regained some color after the healing magic, had gone pale again at the name. “Is that where we are?”

“Well, technically. Right now we’re in the Parchwood. Whitestone is...” Vex’ahlia squinted, looked around herself, and then pointed to her left. “That way.” 

“Isn’t that where you’re from?” Vex asked Percy in an undertone, leaning in. He only nodded, at a loss for words.

“Makes sense,” Vex’ahlia said. “It’s where my Percy’s from, too, which is why I’m here. And if we’re going to be fighting  _ Ripley  _ again, we should talk to him first.”

Vex and Percy exchanged a wordless, but meaningful, glance. Percy breathed in deeply, and readjusted his glasses.

“Alright,” he said. “Lead the way.”

* * *

 

The forest was large, but Vex’ahlia lead them as surely as if they were following a path. Technically they were, if the marks bear-Trinket left in the snow counted. Vex and Percy hung behind, following practically in her footprints but leaving a decent amount of space between them.

Vex’s mind was still reeling from everything that had happened in such a short amount of time. Her counterpart was nothing like she’d expected, even aside from the historical-reenactment style armor, and the bows and arrows. What kind of world had they stepped into? And, she thought with a twinge of panic, would the portal still be there when they wanted to go home?

Percy seemed similarly lost in thought, when she glanced over at him. Vex nudged him, just hard enough to get his attention.

“You look like you’re thinking hard,” she said when he looked up. She kept her voice low. “Thinking about how strange this is?”

Percy smiled faintly. “No, but in some ways yes. I was thinking about how Pike - the one from here - thought it was so strange that we were all human.”

“Why?”

“Did you notice?” Percy pointed at Vex’ahlia, and then gestured like he was pulling his ears into a point. “It’s a little strange, that it’s such a small difference between the two of you.”

“That would be because I’m half human,” Vex’ahlia said, making them both startle. She looked over her shoulder at them, slowing for a moment. “It’s not polite to talk about people behind their backs.”

“Sorry,” Percy offered. “Would it be impolite to ask what the other half is?”

Vex’ahlia gave him an odd look. “Elf,” she said. “I’m half elven.”

“Really?” Vex asked. “Cool.”

That didn’t seem to be the answer Vex’ahlia had been expecting. She cast a startled look over her shoulder, and after a moment of silence in which she sized up Vex, she said only, “Yeah, it is.”

The rest of their walk was quiet.

* * *

 

When they finally broke past the treeline, the road that greeted them was free of snow, paved with large smooth stones. Oddly, there were a few frozen puddles lingering in the dirt on either side, and muddy bits where water appeared to have run downhill.

_ “Wow.”  _ The word floated out of Percy’s mouth on an impressed breath. Vex looked up from the ground, and saw the castle at the top of the hill. 

It shone white even in what little light was making its way past the overcast layer of cloud. There was a wall with an iron gate encircling it. The gate seemed black as night against the gleaming stone, and on either side banners blew gently in the wind - blue and white and purple with some kind of design worked on top of the stripes of color. Vex couldn’t make out the details from so far away.

Past the wall, the castle itself rose tall and proud, with two towers in the front and one tall fat one in the back, and another on the rear wall. Flags waved from poles at the top of the pointed roofs on the latter two. Again, Vex could discern no details from such a distance except the way the flagpole shone like gold. The windows of the castle reflected the light as well, rendering them nearly invisible in the walls. Little black gaps, which Vex realized with a jolt were slits for archers to shoot through, were peppered across the battlements. 

Vex’ahlia was already ten feet up the road towards it. She had stopped and turned back towards them when she realized that neither was following. Trinket, waiting obediently at her side, was also looking. 

“Haven’t you ever seen a castle before?” She called down to them. Percy shook his head without taking his eyes from the sight.

“They’re not so common on our side,” Vex supplied.

“Seems like nothing is,” Vex’ahlia said dryly. “Come on, we don’t have all day.”

The castle seemed to become impossibly larger the closer the trio approached. The road rose on a gentle incline. It was wide enough that all of them could have walked comfortably side by side without fear of where the ground fell away sharply to either side. The hill was more a plateau in miniature, surrounded by a jagged incline on all but the side that the path led up. 

There were guards on either side of the gate, just inside it; both wore slightly worn-looking helmets and similarly battered armor, though one was simply in chain mail. They stood hurriedly to attention as Vex’ahlia approached, straightening their backs as well as the spears they held. Vex gave Percy a look that said  _ Are you seeing this  _ as they got close enough to make out the intricacies of the wrought-iron gate, as well as the banners. The banners were maybe the weirdest thing Vex had seen all day aside from her doppelgänger: they were exact replicas of the de Rolo crest from her world, the one she’d run into while looking up Percy’s family after he’d spilled his whole tragic backstory. 

“Mind letting me back in, Aden?” Vex’ahlia asked, coming to a halt a few feet away from the gates.

“We weren’t expecting you back so early,” one of the guards replied, hurrying to unlock the gate. He left his spear propped against the wall. “Not with company neither. Normally your Hunt takes a bit longer, no offense meant.”

“Her ‘hunt’?” Percy whispered to Vex, leaning in close. Vex shrugged, looking upwards to where more guards were stationed along the top of the wall. A few of them were looking down curiously.

“None taken.” Vex’ahlia stepped back as the guard, Aden, pushed one side of the gate open. His companion pushed the other side. “And the Hunt’s a mysterious thing, you know. It’s not always literal hunting.”

“If you say so,” Aden said, picking up his spear again. 

“I do.” Vex’ahlia strode in, giving a stately nod to each guard. Trinket lumbered after her; Vex and Percy hurried to follow. 

The  _ clang  _ of the gates closing reached Vex’s ears as she did her best to match Vex’ahlia’s rapid pace towards the main stairs, which led up to a pair of truly huge double doors banded with yet more wrought iron. Percy bent his head towards her as they walked.

“Did you notice,” he said, “that those two were giving us very strange looks?”

“Hopefully they’ll assume one of us is Vax,” Vex murmured back. Percy’s mouth twitched into a smile.

They followed Vex’ahlia, still tailed by Trinket, up the steps and through a smaller, more reasonably sized door set into the left huge one. Inside there was a blue carpet in the hallway, and everything was somehow cleaner than Vex had expected from a castle that looked so old. It was dim, due to the lack of windows or electric lighting, but there were torch brackets set periodically along the walls which supported one or two lit candles. The walls were sparsely lined with portraits and tapestries and doors, all of which Vex examined curiously as they passed. 

Mostly the portraits were of people; severe-looking men and women in stiff old-fashioned dress, or children who varied between degrees of boredom and surprise, as if they’d been caught unawares by the artist. Some of the subjects bore a startling resemblance to Percy, or Cassandra, or both. The frames bore little plaques with names, but Vex’ahlia moved too fast for Vex to linger and read any. The few paintings that weren’t of people were of the castle, or of grey-blue mountains; a few showed unfamiliar towns or other landscapes.

The tapestries all had elaborate borders, usually in the colors of the de Rolo crest, and were either of hunting parties or of scenes Vex recognized as being vaguely mythological. She could see Pelor’s sun repeated often, mostly in elaborate gold corner pieces or as a subtle background pattern. The candles cast flickering light on everything, making the gilt frames of the portraits glow mysteriously and gold or silver embroidery jump out at her when she was least expecting to find any. 

Sometimes there was nothing at all, simply a blank wall in the oddest place where a torch bracket seemed to have been purposefully left out to make room for something. Vex would have asked about the odd absences, if she hadn’t been so distracted by what she  _ was  _ seeing.

Some of the doors bore gilt handles as well. If the doors were open, Vex took no notice of the handles, instead peering inside. One room was empty, the furniture covered in white cloth and huddled in the center; another boasted a company of guards in the same dress as the two at the gate, evidently taking a break; others were full of what appeared to be servants performing various tasks. Most that she could see were closed, or empty.

And yet, the castle was full of movement. There was noise in the distance, and chatter wafting out of the rooms that  _ were  _ occupied. Servants squeezed past Trinket with a nod to Vex’ahlia and a murmur of greeting, hurrying back and forth bearing linens or cleaning instruments (which were just as old-fashioned as everything else Vex had seen so far). Most wore far simpler clothing than Vex’ahlia, and lacked armor entirely. Their clothing was still nothing like anything Vex knew people to wear on her side of the portal; one more degree of unfamiliarity on top of hundreds. 

They came to the end of the hallway soon enough and entered a tall interior courtyard; as dim as the hallway had been, for the ceiling was solid stone, but the lack of a ceiling at the second or third floor and its size made it almost airy. A balcony ran around the border of it, and Vex could both hear and see people moving around on the floor above. Vex’ahlia ushered them across and up a curling set of stairs on the left, and then through the first door they came across once they reached the top.

“Here,” she said, nodding in satisfaction. They had entered what looked like a study; a large oaken desk took up most of the far side of the room, while bookshelves and a thick stone fireplace occupied the rest. “You wait here while I fetch Percy. Oh, hold on - I should light a fire first.” She unclasped her cloak and cast it over the top of the desk, scaly pin and all, before kneeling in front of the fireplace. Grateful for the chance to finally stop walking, Vex collapsed into one of a few comfortable armchairs that were set off to the side next to a chaise lounge. 

Percy’s attention was on the books. Instead of sitting, he wandered over to the nearest shelf, eyes scanning the titles. Vex took the opportunity to pull off her soaked sneakers and try to rub some feeling back into her toes. 

“What language are these in?” Percy asked, tilting his head. Vex could see a familiar curious furrow to his brow.

“That depends.” Vex’ahlia had piled wood into the fireplace and was striking what looked like a flint rock. “Percy knows a couple different languages, and some of the books might have been put there by someone else. What does the script look like?”

Percy squinted. “Curly? It’s a little faded.”

“Elvish, then, maybe.” The paper caught, and Vex’ahlia grinned triumphantly. “Aha!” She poked at the fire with a poker until it had started burning to her satisfaction, then turned and caught sight of Vex. “Geez, you must have been out there for a while. Nobody’s toes are black, I hope.”

Suddenly alarmed, Vex pulled her socks off. Her toes were still numb, but they looked okay, aside from being too pale for comfort. Percy dropped abruptly into the chair next to hers and started undoing his laces.

“I’ll be back in a minute,” Vex’ahlia promised, before shooing Trinket out of the room and leaving, closing the door behind her. With the bear absent, there seemed to be a lot more space than when they’d first entered.

“This is insane,” Percy muttered, poking each of his toes individually to test his reflexes.

“I’m sure if you asked Vax he’d say all my ideas turn out like that,” Vex said, laughing a little. She was nearly giddy with relief. Her plan had worked, and not only that, but the two of them were tucked away in a castle with Ripley an entire world away. And her alternate universe self looked like a badass. 

“I don’t think your ideas could  _ possibly  _ consistently involve seeking refuge with your alternate universe self.”

“I think they should more often. We’re in a castle! This is  _ so  _ cool.”

“And nobody knows where we are,” Percy reminded her. “Not from our side, at least.”

That brought Vex’s mood down considerably. “Shit. Vax is going to lose it.” She hoped he didn’t do anything unwise and get tangled up with Ripley. “Do you think Ripley will go after them?”

Percy’s mouth thinned out. “Maybe,” he said. “She knows, or could find out, who I’ve been staying with, and she’s not exactly the nicest when she wants something.” He gestured, with a wry smile, to the bloody stain that remained on his coat. 

Vex sank down in her chair, which had the added bonus of putting her feet closer to the fire. “Well, add it to the list of stuff we’re going to have to figure out how to deal with.” She wiggled her toes, trying to rid herself of the feeling of pins and needles. “Let’s see how our host reacts first. You realize the man in charge here is probably you, right?”

“...A castle is a first for me,” Percy said at length.

“I bet you could buy one off King Uriel back home if you wanted.”

“I don’t think that’s how money  _ or  _ status works.” 

“Then you’re not trying hard enough.”

Percy sighed, but there was fondness in it.  _ “After  _ Ripley, I will consider the logistics of acquiring a castle.”

“That’s all I ask.” Smiling now, Vex settled more comfortably into the chair. For now, everything seemed to be looking up.

* * *

 

It didn’t take too long for Vex’ahlia to return. The sound of people moving around and occasionally talking drifted through the door into the study at a regular rate, so it took the click of the handle turning for Vex and Percy to realize someone was approaching. 

“-thought so too, but I guess not,” Vex’ahlia was saying as she came in. She was facing away from them, towards her companion. “Pelor’s tricky like that.”

“That’s not generally how people describe him.”  _ Percy’s  _ dry voice preceded another Percy into the room. The similarities were overpowering on the first glance - there weren’t, after all, very many white-haired young men in the world. Vex’s world, at least. 

The other Percy - Percival, Vex dubbed him in her head - looked between the two of them with interest. His glasses were round like Percy’s, but they were an odd style, and on either side had smaller lenses that looked like they could be moved down over the main ones, like jeweler’s glasses. 

His hair was untidy, and he was wiping his hands on a white cloth that had been liberally stained black. There were a few smudges of black on his clothes, too, marring the expensive-looking fabric of his shirt and the knees of his pants. His boots, similar in make to Vex’ahlia’s, went up to just under the knee, and the sleeves of his shirt billowed ever so slightly, like the pale purple cravat tied around his neck. 

“Well,” Percival said. “This is certainly something.”

Vex’ahlia scoffed. “Would I have brought you all the way up here for nothing?”

“I wasn’t ruling out ulterior motives.” Percival tucked the dirty cloth into his pants pocket and circled around the chairs to face Percy. With his back to the fireplace, the light illuminated his earring - the same one, Vex noted, that Vex’ahlia was wearing, and on the same side. “You must admit, the idea of more than one prime material plane is mind-boggling, to say the least of one that contains a nearly identical version of our own.”

“‘Prime material plane’?” Percy repeated. “I’m not familiar.”

“I’m going to stop both of you right there,” Vex’ahlia interjected quickly. “This is like when you met Taryon, but worse. The nerd conversations can wait until we sort out whatever’s going on here.”

Percival nodded slowly, his intrigued expression sobering. “Of course. From what I’ve heard, it’s a serious issue that brings you here.” His gaze lingered on Percy’s bloody coat. “Perhaps you could start at the beginning.”

Percy looked down, twining his hands together and holding tight. “The beginning is rather a long time ago.”

“We have plenty of time to speak, unless you know otherwise.”

“I can explain, if you don’t want to,” Vex offered. She’d seen a lot of Percy as he was now in the recent months; shrinking into himself, hands clenched together. The Briarwood case had been stressful enough for him without Ripley coming into play. But Percy shook his head. He inhaled deeply, slowly, and then looked up at his otherself.

“We told Vex - this world’s Vex - that we were running from Ripley,” he said. Percival nodded again. “It took both of us by surprise, her showing up again. It was only tonight that I realized she was involved in it at all.”

With a start, Vex realized that Percy had never said precisely how he knew Ripley. She’d heard the woman’s name for the first time that night, and with Percy suffering from his bullet wound, the name had been pretty much everything that he’d told her. 

“I suspect that - well, I should backtrack. A month or so ago, I was spontaneously assaulted for, I thought, no good reason. I suspect now that she was behind that in an effort to keep me from testifying.”

“Testifying?” Vex’ahlia echoed. “Against who?”

Percy pressed his hands against his lips, casting his eyes back down. “There is a couple,” he said at length, “by the name of Briarwood.”

A bomb couldn’t have gotten the attention of their counterparts better. Both Percival and Vex’ahlia stood bolt upright. Percival’s eyes flashed with a sudden intensity.

“You don’t mean to say that they could come through as well?” He demanded. 

“No!” Percy looked taken aback by the strength of their reactions. “The case was all settled - that was why Ripley came after me so openly. I mean, it must have been why.”

“You took the  _ Briarwoods  _ to  _ court?”  _ Vex’ahlia seemed dumbfounded.

“No,” Percy said again, shaking his head. “I didn’t even know anything was happening to them until I was asked to speak against them by some lawyer from the public court. I don’t even know how they ended up in Emon.”

“Slow down and  _ explain,”  _ Vex’ahlia said. “If you weren’t bringing them to court, who  _ was?  _ Who else would have a reason to?”

Percy stared at her. “I should think,” he said frostily, “that the murder of seven people would prompt  _ some  _ kind of legal action against the culprits.”

Percival turned away abruptly, facing the mantelpiece. Vex could see his fingers flex and tighten into a fist. 

“Oh,” Vex’ahlia said, “so people  _ knew  _ about it. That’s different.”

“Of course people knew! In what world would...” Percy faltered. Vex glanced at Percival, who appeared to have fixated on the individual stones of the mantel.

“Of all the things to stay the same,” he murmured under his breath. He sounded distant, as though his mind were far away.

Vex had heard Percy’s story for the first time only a month or so ago, after she’d rescued him from the initial assault with Vax’s help. None of them, Percy included, had heard of the trial yet. When word came that the Briarwoods were facing imprisonment, but one more witness was needed to cement it, the tale had come stumbling out of Percy in bits and pieces over the days.

The Briarwoods, almost a year ago to the day, had posed as guests in the official de Rolo residence in Emon. Most of the remaining noble families were clustered in the capitol, their historical land inheritances housing either summer homes or the rare permanent residence. Vex was not sure Percy had ever been to the Whitestone on their side. In any case, the Briarwoods had wormed their way into the house, and that night only Percy’s lightly-sleeping sister Cassandra had saved him from the same fate as the rest of their family. It was pure luck that, even as they were separated in their desperate flight, Percy and Cassandra had reunited years later, drawn back together by the chance to put their family’s murderers in prison. 

Vex couldn’t imagine what the Briarwoods might have done if nobody had known of the crimes the pair had committed.

“I’m sorry,” Vex said. “We didn’t know we’d be bringing up bad memories. But I promise the Briarwoods from our side won’t be going anywhere. Much less  _ here. _ ”

Percival sighed heavily, and finally turned to face them again. He looked far more tired than he had when he’d walked in. “But Ripley might.”

“Well, hey.” Vex’ahlia spoke up. “We beat the shit out of her once, we can do it again. Besides, if she gets over here she’ll be out of her depth and without any kind of outside contacts.”

Percival smiled faintly. “You make it sound very easy.”

“Easier than before, at least.” Vex’ahlia shrugged. “She’ll have to come into Whitestone at some point - it’s the only city for miles. We can put word out and have the guards alerted if anyone sees her.”

“It’s a start,” Percival allowed. He was beginning to look thoughtful. “We should call back everyone else, just in case. Is Taryon still in town?”

“Where else would he be?” Vex’ahlia scoffed. “Vax is still in Zephrah with Keyleth, though, and I don’t know how we’ll get a message to them fast.”

“Zephrah?” Vex echoed, startled. Vex’ahlia glanced at her, but Percival spoke up, too absorbed in his thoughts to notice.

“And Pike and Grog are still in Vasselheim...do you think we could get Allura to Message them?”

“Oh, of course!” Vex’ahlia perked up. “You and Cassandra were nearly finished with the circle that leads there, right?”

“Yes, it was finished last week.”

_ “Hold on,”  _ Vex interrupted, standing up. “Could we have a conversation all four of us, please, seeing as this involves me and Percy too?”

Percival, to his credit, was quick to respond. “Of course,” he said smoothly. “Since we most likely will need to know, how fast would it be possible for your Ripley to find her way here?”

“Not today,” Percy said. “Maybe not even tomorrow. We were only just ambushed by her, and happened to be in the same forest where we knew the portal was.” He thought for a moment, gaze drifting to the ceiling. “If she somehow stumbles across it - following our trail, maybe - it won’t be very soon.”

“Then we have time.” Percival nodded. “We can call on Allura tomorrow.”

“But we need to let somebody know where we are,” Vex broke in. “We’ve already been missing for a while, I think. Vax will worry, and I think someone might have called the police when we were attacked.”

“How could we do that?” Vex’ahlia was frowning. “Even with magic, most things are limited to whichever plane of existence you’re on.” 

“We have time to discuss,” Percival said firmly. “For now, I think the two of you could use a moment of time to rest.” He eyed Percy’s bloody coat pointedly. “And maybe find a change of clothes.”

“Oh, yeah, you two stick out terribly.” Vex’ahlia nodded. “Unless you stay in the castle the whole time, you may get some awkward questions. Wait, are they staying here, or with me?”

Both Vex and Percy looked to Percival. He shrugged.

“You two  _ could  _ stay here if you liked,” he said. “Are you offering to give them a place, Vex?”

Vex’ahlia shrugged. “I guess it’s up to the two of you. Getting to my house would involve taking a walk through Whitestone itself.”

“I think I’ll postpone my answer until I’ve had a change and some sleep,” Percy said. “It was nighttime where we left.”

“Odd,” Percival said. “Well, no matter. I’ll have some rooms set up here for the two of you. In the meantime, I suppose you’re free to wander, though I’d ask that you not get in anybody’s way.”

“Is there a library?” Percy asked. Vex snorted at his eagerness. “Or books in here on the planes? I don’t know nearly as much about them as I’d like.” 

“Really?” Percival raised his eyebrows. “Perhaps it’s just an effect of things working so differently on your side. One moment.” He crossed the room to the bookshelves. Vex’ahlia rolled her eyes and snatched her cloak off the desk.

“Come on,” she said, beckoning Vex. “Whatever you need to get done, it can be done while those two nerd out with each other.” 

Vex hesitated, glancing towards Percy. It felt wrong to leave him by himself in a world neither of them understood, and had only been in for maybe an hour. 

“Found it,” Percival announced, pulling a thick tome from the shelf. “It’s a little long-winded, but the information is sound. Oh, uh-” He had turned back around and seen Vex’ahlia at the door. “Unless you would rather rest first?”

Percy shook his head. “You go,” he said to Vex. “I’ll be fine. What could I do to myself?”

“If you say so,” Vex said. She turned towards Vex’ahlia and extended a hand. “Lead the way.”

Vex’ahlia took her hand, smiling. As soon as she did so, however, there was a bright spark and a sharp stinging sensation, and both of them snatched their hands away with identical yelps. 

“What?” Percival nearly threw the book onto the desk and was at Vex’ahlia’s side in an instant. “What was it?”

“I don’t know,” Vex’ahlia said.  _ “Ouch.  _ That was like getting shocked by your glove.”

“I would hope not,” Percival said. He’d taken her hand and was turning it over, looking for any damage. Vex didn’t see any, on hers or Vex’ahlia’s. “Strange. I wonder...”

“Wonder later,” Vex’ahlia said. “I’ve been in armor all day and need a bath. Whatever this is can wait.” She eyed Vex, and then added jokingly, “As long as none of us touch each other, things should be fine.” She beckoned Vex once again and stepped out into the hall, holding the door open with one foot.

Vex, with a last look at Percy, gathered up her shoes and socks and followed.

* * *

 

Vex’ahlia led Vex around the balcony and into a large, grand bedroom that had to be accessed through a small parlor. Vex looked around as she stepped inside, astonished at the luxury. The bed, pushed up against the center of the left wall, was flanked by two tall curtained windows. The bed itself was a four-poster with thick red curtains, a lot of pillows, and a soft-looking quilt. A door on the left around a corner was open slightly, showing a tiled floor and the corner of a tub. A wardrobe stood near the door to the bathroom, tall and intricately carved. Near it was a white vanity table, with a few small items scattered across it. The rest of the space was taken up by a small cluster of comfortable-looking chairs around another fireplace, or by a thick carpet that bore a startling resemblance to the tapestries downstairs. There was a desk, too, which was covered in papers and a few books. It was the only thing that appeared to have been used within the last day or so, aside from the vanity. 

“The clothes in here should probably fit you,” Vex’ahlia said, tossing her cloak one again onto the nearest flat surface, which happened to be the bed. “There  _ should  _ still be some things left over - aha!” She had thrown open the wardrobe doors and discovered a few articles of clothing in various dark colors. On the inside of one door was a mirror with a gilt border. 

“I don’t want to steal anybody’s clothes,” Vex began awkwardly.

“Oh, don’t worry, these are all mine. I should have said that. This is where I stayed while I was waiting for my house to finish getting built.”

“Why did you have to wait for it to be built?” Vex took the opportunity to more closely examine the clasp that held the cloak. It was a pattern of overlapping scales, the largest being on top and bright red. Underneath was black and white to either side, then blue, then green. They were cleverly fitted together so as to form an almost completely smooth, slightly curved surface, bordered with gold. Mounted on the back was the actual pin, also in gold. 

“Oh, it used to be owned by one of the Barons the Briarwoods had installed while they were set up in Whitestone. Scanlan-”

“The Briarwoods were here?” Vex nearly dropped the pin. “How?”

Vex’ahlia sighed as she shook out what appeared to be a shirt. “It happened a lot differently here than for your Percy. Whitestone’s so isolated, after Percy’s family was killed the Briarwoods claimed they’d all died of illness and set themselves up as the new Lord and Lady. There wasn’t much Percy could do. We only got here a year or so ago, after they’d been in charge for five. It was a pretty dreary place. Percy and Cassandra are still working on recovering all the stuff they got rid of that used to belong to the family - portraits and the like. There’s some family piece that was done when Percy was a kid that nobody’s been able to find.”

Vex realized that she had been holding the pin very tightly and abruptly put it down. “That’s terrible.”

“I know, right? The least of it was them giving all their friends noble titles and such. Ripley was one of them, I think. Most of the others are dead now.” Vex’ahlia said it very calmly. “So are the Briarwoods, in fact.”

“Good,” Vex said reflexively. “They’re terrible people.”

“And a vampire and necromancer, respectively,” Vex’ahlia said. Before Vex could even think of how to reply, she dumped a bundle of clothes into her arms. “Here, see how you like these. They’re probably warmer than what you’ve got on now.”

_ “Vampires  _ are real?” Vex sputtered, dumping the clothes quickly onto the bed.  _ “Really?” _

“You don’t have  _ anything  _ interesting on your side, do you?” Vex’ahlia laughed a little. “They’re not exactly common, but yes.”

“Pelor’s balls,” Vex said, making Vex’ahlia laugh even louder. “Wait, I’m sorry, you were saying something and then I interrupted. What does Scanlan have to do with your house?”

“Oh, he burned it down,” Vex’ahlia said. Vex stared. “The original, I mean. We’d already gone after one of the Counts and the other two were expecting us, so we sent him over to cause a distraction while we hit the other.”

Vex opened her mouth, closed it, and then said, “I feel like at this point I should stop being surprised by completely insane things coming out of your mouth.”

“How is  _ that  _ completely insane?” Vex’ahlia questioned.

“You’re implying you  _ killed  _ at least three people.”

“The guy who used to own my place survived,” Vex’ahlia scoffed. “All Scanlan did was like, push him off a roof to avoid being beat to shit by him. Besides, the Briarwoods killed a lot more people here for worse reasons than we ever did.”

Vex opened her mouth again, remembered that she’d genuinely considered taking her pistol and going after the Briarwoods herself, and decided against what she had been about to say. 

“I guess I was just surprised,” Vex said. “That’s not usually option one on my side.”

“You’ve said a lot already about what your side isn’t.” Vex’ahlia sat down on the bed, the covers and her cloak sinking down under her. “What is it like?”

Where was she even supposed to start with a question like that? Vex sat down, too, pushing the clothes out of the way. “I don’t know. It’s home, I guess. There’s a lot of it to describe.”

“What about magic?”

“There’s not much of it.” Vex shrugged. “I was always taught that after the Divergence, magic faded from the world as much as gods did. There still  _ is  _ some, but only a little. Artifacts and the like, or enchanted swords. Not all of them work anymore, or else they’re fakes. People still love the idea of magic, though. Half the reason the Briarwoods did what they did was to get their hands on a bunch of old heirlooms the de Rolos had that had some kind of power or another. I don’t know. I wasn’t really listening to their defense.”

“Anything to do with Vecna?” Vex’ahlia, suddenly keen, questioned.

“Who’s Vecna?”

“Ah, it’s not important. I was just wondering.” Vex’ahlia leaned away again. Vex narrowed her eyes, but her counterpart seemed to mean what she said. “You had a Divergence too, then?”

“Yeah, of course. There was one here?” Vex’ahlia nodded in response. “Weird.”

“Why?”

Vex shrugged again. “It seems so arbitrary, what’s different and what’s not. I mean, we’re technically the exact same person, but you and me have  _ completely  _ different lives.”

“We do come from different worlds,” Vex’ahlia pointed out. “If we’d come from the same one, we wouldn’t be nearly as different.”

“If we’d come from the same world, we’d both be me,” Vex said. “I think. That made more sense in my brain.”

“No, I understand what you mean.” Vex’ahlia sat quietly for a moment, the silence unspooling between them. It wasn’t awkward; Vex felt no impulse to speak. Eventually, though, Vex’ahlia gestured at the shirts still scattered over the quilt. “If you’d like to try a hand at being me instead, you could take a look at those. It might help you blend in a little more.”

“Should I?” Vex looked down at the pile. The clothes were mostly dark colors, varying between soft shiny cloth and sturdier, simple fabrics. “Are we keeping me a secret?”

“I don’t know about  _ secret _ ,” Vex’ahlia said. “I’ll talk to Percy about it. But I think it’s best if we don’t exactly shout about it all over. Besides, it’s just plain easier to get things done when you look like you belong.”   
“Alright,” Vex said. “But maybe we could start with warmer socks?” The floor was cold stone, and her feet were  _ freezing.  _ Vex’ahlia laughed, and turned back to the wardrobe.

It was exciting to look through the clothes of this world, in a way. Vex’s usual standards for clothes were basic: ‘is it cheap’ and/or ‘does it make me look hot’. These clothes met none of those standards. They all looked like something somebody would wear in the ads for historical reenactment fairs Vax sometimes looked at and then hurriedly exited out of when he realized Vex had noticed. Vex felt like a child playing dress-up. Everything felt soft to the touch, and sturdy, not at all like the screen-printed tee she currently had on.

Armed with warm wool socks, Vex braced herself for goosebumps and shed her jacket and shirt (facing very firmly away from Vex’ahlia; they might be the same person, but it was still a  _ little  _ weird). 

“What are you wearing?” Vex’ahlia asked as Vex tugged on a soft, deep green tunic. It fit surprisingly well - but then, it was technically hers.

“Your shirt?”

“No, underneath that.”

Surprised, Vex turned around. “Don’t you have bras here?”

“If we do, I haven’t heard enough of them to remember it,” Vex’ahlia said. She was sitting on the other end of the bed, undoing the buckles of her armor. “What’s it for?”

“It’s underwear for your boobs,” Vex said. Absentmindedly, she reached up under the shirt and fiddled with the band on her bra until it sat more comfortably. “To give them support and stuff. And make them look nice, too.”

“Weird,” Vex’ahlia said. “Sounds like something rich people would wear.”

“Don’t you have corsets or something here?” Everything else was so historical, it seemed reasonable to Vex.

“Is that a Wildemount thing?”

“I have no idea,” Vex said. The two women stared at each other for a moment, and then started to giggle simultaneously. 

“I’d offer to let you try it on,” Vex said, once they could both speak without laughing, “but it’s the only one I’ve got right now and I’m used to wearing one.”

“I’ll pass,” Vex’ahlia scoffed airily. “I don’t see the point, anyway.”

“Don’t your boobs ever bounce around a lot when you’re moving fast?”

“Not with armor on.” As she spoke, Vex’ahlia undid the small buckles on the side of her armor and slid out of it, leaving her in a regular shirt that hung a little past her waist. It seemed to be layered over something thicker. “And if I’m doing something that doesn’t require armor, it doesn’t really matter.”

“I guess that makes sense. I don’t put one on unless I have to leave the house and go do something.” Hanging around on the sofa hardly required boob support. 

“Why wear them at all, then?”

“Societal expectation?” Vex suggested. “I dunno, people just do. I  _ could  _ not, but it would be like not wearing underwear. Or whatever you’ve got on under your shirt.” 

“What?” Vex’ahlia looked down at herself. “Oh, that. It’s just a padded tunic, for wearing underneath armor so nothing chafes. I’m only leaving it on because all my nice stuff is at home and Whitestone’s too cold to start removing layers. Speaking of which, you might want something underneath that shirt.”

“Other than the bra?” Vex asked, smirking.

“Other than the bra, yes.” Vex’ahlia’s mouth curved into a mirror of Vex’s own expression. She picked up one of the thinner white things strewn on the bed and tossed it at Vex, who caught it easily. “No bras here, but lots of layers. Winter in Whitestone is brutal.” 

“I don’t know much about Whitestone,” Vex confessed, shedding the shirt with less self-consciousness now. The undershirt puzzled her for a moment until she worked out which way was up, and pulled it on. “This seems a little revealing for an undershirt.”

“You’re meant to tie it.” Vex’ahlia pointed to the cloth strings that trailed from either side of the purposeful slash that bisected the neckline. Doing so, Vex discovered that the undershirt was significantly tighter around the neck than she’d expected. That explained why the tie existed, at least; if it was a solid hem, she’d never be able to get it over her head.

“This is already more elaborate than anything I’ve ever worn,” she mentioned offhand, picking up the green tunic again. The clothes felt less like a costume now, and more like fancy dress. Unusual, but necessary, and not so much out of place. 

“Don’t you ever layer clothes on your side?”

“Yes, as in sweaters over my regular shirts. And bras, of course.”

Vex’ahlia snorted, and reached over to pick up Vex’s discarded shirt. “Wouldn’t layering cover whatever this is?” ‘This’ was the printed advertisement for Vex’s favorite band. Vex’ahlia held the shirt up to properly examine it. 

“Yeah, but the point isn’t to show that. The point is that it’s a cool shirt to own.”

Vex’ahlia nodded thoughtfully, then grinned at Vex. “I like it.”

“I like yours,” Vex said, gesturing at the one she was wearing. “Honestly, all this stuff feels more expensive than anything I’ve literally ever owned.”

“I  _ know,”  _ Vex’ahlia sighed, surprisingly. “The me of a couple of years ago would be so jealous.”

“You weren’t always-?” Vex gestured to the room at large.

“Oh, fuck no. Vax and I didn’t start earning big money until we started adventuring. Even then, it was a rough start. All this-” Vex’ahlia made the same gesture. “-only happened when we got Whitestone back. And then Percy titled me to help me be petty at Syldor, so.”

“He can do that?” It was the response that jumped the most readily to Vex’s lips.

“Well, like I said. A lot of the noble houses of Whitestone were available after we got it back.” Vex’ahlia put the shirt back down. “And Percy’s in charge of Whitestone, so he can pretty much do what he wants.”

The thought of Percival made an idea occur to Vex in a flash, distracting her from thoughts of nobility. “Do you think your Percy is going to lend Percy some clothes too?”

“Probably. They’re practically guaranteed to be the same size.”

“I would  _ kill  _ to have my phone right now,” Vex said fervently. At Vex’ahlia’s confused look, she clarified, “It’s a piece of technology we have on my side. I can take pictures with it.”

“Oh, like Image Capture.” Vex’ahlia nodded in understanding.

“...Yes,” Vex agreed, for the sake of time. She could hear the capital letters, and wondered at their significance.

“Because you think he’s going to look stupid? You’re going be disappointed if my Percy is anything to go by.”

“He’s gonna look enough like your Percy that I will  _ absolutely  _ be able to make fun of him once I get home.” Vex trailed off a little as she reached the end of the sentence. There was no telling, after all,  _ when  _ she would be able to go home. 

Vex’ahlia, noticing, reached over to pat her shoulder. “It’s nearly time to eat,” she said. “We’ll go see how uncomfortable your Percy looks in his new outfit and introduce you to Cassandra, and we can talk about how we’re going to do everything then.” 

“Okay,” Vex said, breathing in and out purposefully. It hadn’t been too long; Vax would worry, but not too much yet. “Let’s go.”

* * *

 

Vex’ahlia left her at the top of the stairs, citing a need to go search for Percival. Feeling a little more foolish when left to her own devices, Vex went downstairs, finding herself almost immediately in front of a grand pair of doors that she had missed on the way up. Candles flickered gently in iron holders on either side of them, and Percy lurked off to the side, fiddling with the cuffs of a shirt that looked like a very neat mix of his and Percival’s styles.

“I’m disappointed you didn’t go full historical reenactment on me,” Vex teased as she approached. Percy looked up sharply, relaxing when he recognized her.

“He seemed disappointed that I didn’t want a cravat,” he replied. “The other Percy, I mean. I had to explain to him that men’s fashion on our side is mostly black suits and ties.” The rest of his outfit change was limited to simple pants like the ones Percival had been wearing, and a red jacket to replace his coat. Percy still had his belt and sneakers on.

“Fascinating,” Vex said, affecting a terrible posh accent. The corners of Percy’s eyes wrinkled into a smile. “Well,  _ I  _ had an excellent conversation where I explained what bras were, and then she told me about how our alternate selves probably literally murdered the Briarwoods, so that was fun.” Vex’ahlia had said nothing about such a thing, but if they had gone so far with only the Briarwood’s cronies, Vex had little doubt about who had caused the death of the couple on this side of the portal.

All traces of amusement had disappeared from Percy’s face at the name ‘Briarwood’, replaced by shock at the preceding verb. “Seriously?”

“I know, it’s like we’re in some old Pre-Divergence romance where step one is to kill the villain.” Vex winked. “We both look the part, too.”

“I don’t think we’re quite Pre-Divergence,” Percy said thoughtfully. “Also, you’re still wearing jeans. But have you noticed, though, that there’s no electric light in here?”

“Oh, silly me, of course not. Here I was thinking all the candles were tea lights.”

“I was just  _ saying- _ ” Percy cut himself off with a fondly exasperated huff. “The other Percy-”

“I’ve been referring to him as Percival.”

“Fine,  _ Percival _ didn’t seem to even be familiar with the concept of factory-made clothing. However drastically this world’s development has differed from ours, I think it might easily be hundreds of years in the past as well.”

“Yeah, Vex’ahlia didn’t even know what a phone was - wait, the past?” Vex questioned as her train of thought caught up to what Percy was saying.  _ “What?” _

“We went from autumn to winter and from nearly midnight to barely noon by crossing a magical portal between worlds, is a difference of  _ years  _ where you draw the line?”

“Uh,  _ hundreds  _ of years? Yes!” Vex shook her head. “Maybe they just haven’t figured stuff like that out yet because they’ve got magic.”

Percy opened his mouth, paused, and raised a thoughtful hand to his chin. 

“Where is Percival, anyway?” Vex asked before the conversation could continue. “Vex’ahlia went to go look for him, I figured you wouldn’t be down yet.”

“Have you just been calling our alternate selves by our full names?”

“Maybe. Answer the question.”

“I don’t know, maybe he wanted to clean all those stains off his shirt.” Percy shrugged. “Or maybe they wanted to get us alone so they could kill us and be rid of the problem.”

“I hope that’s you being bad at sarcasm again,” Vex said. She was teasing, of course - she knew when Percy was joking by now.  _ “If  _ that was remotely true, they’d have to try pretty hard. I’ve still got a pistol on me.”

“Oh, shit!” Percy clapped a hand over his mouth to belatedly muffle the shout, eyes widening.

“What?!”

“Gunpowder,” Percy said. “That’s what those stains were. Percival smelled like gunpowder.”

“No way.” Vex felt, very acutely, the cold metal of her pistol where it was pressed against her skin. It was a miracle Vex’ahlia hadn’t noticed it sticking out of her waistband and asked about it. “What would he be doing messing around with gunpowder?”

“I don’t know. That’s weird, though, right? I’m not overreacting?”

“It’s pretty fuckin’ weird,” Vex agreed. “I don’t know if we have the room to be poking around asking questions about it, though.”

Percy hesitated, then nodded. “I’ll trust your judgement.”

“You always should, darling, I’m much better at making them than you.” Vex leaned up against the wall next to him. “Maybe we can ask once they’ve agreed to somehow let Vax and the rest know where we are. Oh, shit, they don’t know about Ripley.” Her stomach suddenly plummeted.

“Ripley wants me, not them,” Percy said glumly. “The worst she’ll do is spy on them in the hopes that we show up looking for help.”

“Why  _ does  _ Ripley want you?” Vex asked. “I don’t think ‘want you’ is even the right word; she  _ shot  _ you. It seems like what she  _ wants  _ is you dead.”

“Perhaps.”

“Percy!” Vex gaped. “Are you for real?”

“I don’t know. She’s vicious enough to have shot me.” Percy’s hand strayed to his recently-healed side. “She’s connected to the Briarwoods, but I don’t know much about her. Whatever she’s come after me for, it’s probably connected to the case.”

“What-”

“I would rather wait,” Percy interrupted, “until our hosts are here so I don’t have to explain it more than once.”

“Fine,” Vex huffed.“Speaking of our hosts, where  _ are  _ they?”

“Still navigating the endless halls of the literal castle we’re in?”

“It’s not like they could get lost. They live here.”

As if summoned, the two of them heard a small, but purposeful, cough. Vex and Percy looked up to see Cassandra on the stairs above. 

She looked remarkably like the Cassandra Vex had met; she even had a faint streak of grey in the same place. But the Cassandra Vex was familiar with didn’t put her hair up into such severe styles. This Cassandra’s hair was braided back sharply from her temples, trailing into a long thin braid that hung over her shoulder. Her clothes were similar to Percival’s, in style at least; she had a waistcoat-esque top buttoned over an expensive-looking shirt that matched her long skirt. Delicate embroidery decorated every article, flashing at the hems. A more prominent sun of Pelor had been stitched over her right breast in gold, and what appeared to be a watch chain vanished into one of the waistcoat’s pockets.

“Perhaps they’re getting tired of waiting for you to look up,” Cassandra said. “Really, though, I’ve been standing here for a good few minutes.” She started descending the stairs before Vex could think of a good answer, briefly vanishing around the central support pillar. A guard who had been standing at the top of the stairs hurried to follow, sticking close behind. As Cassandra approached, she gave Percy a thorough once-over, taking in every aspect of his appearance. “You know, up until now I was inclined to think my brother might be playing a joke on me.”

“Unfortunately, no,” Percy said. His hands were linked tightly behind his back, and he was doing his best not to stare outright at his sister’s counterpart. 

“Yes, I heard something of your circumstances. Only a little, though.” Cassandra pushed one of the great doors, and they opened immediately like the automatic doors at the grocery store, swinging inwards under their own power. Cassandra strode inside, the guard remaining close at her heels. Vex and Percy, with a glance at each other, followed.

The far wall was almost entirely made up of thin, tall windows, stained glass perched in the top half depicting trees with spreading branches and golden leaves, or else yet more motifs of Pelor’s sun. The windows almost vanished into the soaring arches of the ceiling, which had to be at least three stories tall. Thick wooden beams and stone supports held it high aloft.

A square U-shaped table took up most of the floor space, polished chairs lined up along each side. An enormous fireplace stood at one end of the long room, with a fire kindled high inside and radiating thick heat. At the other end was a raised dais supporting a smaller table, long enough to seat twenty or more people on just one side. The wall behind the dais was decorated with shields and spears and de Rolo banners. A small wooden door was set into the corner behind the high table, so unremarkable that Vex almost missed it. 

“It’s a little grand for such small company, I know,” Cassandra said, noticing their stares. “But it’s closest to the kitchen, and aside from having meals brought up to rooms there isn’t anywhere else as convenient to host company.” 

“Right,” Percy said faintly, as Cassandra took a seat at the lower table. Plates and cups were already laid out alongside silverware and cloth napkins.“I’m sorry, this is all...a lot. Give me a moment.”

“Of course.” Cassandra, Vex noticed, was no better than the two of them at disguising her curious gaze, just more skilled at using a regal manner to cover it up. “Sit wherever you like, there’s only going to be a few of us.”

“I feel like royalty,” Vex murmured to Percy as they sat, both on Cassandra’s right. When she and Vax had still lived with Syldor, they’d had fancy dinners served by servants, but none like this. And definitely none in such regal halls, much less  _ any  _ kind of hall. 

And there  _ were  _ servants in the castle; three of them came out of the subtle door, trailed by the noises of hushed chatter and movement and general cooking noises, to lay out what was, for only a few people, almost a feast. Even the food was the height of luxury, home-cooked; none of it anything like the instant noodles or canned soup that were staples of Vex’s life back home.

Cassandra thanked each of the servers by name. Each one received the words with a nod and a smile, and quickly vanished back through into what was apparently the kitchen. 

No sooner had the last foot crossed the threshold then the doors to the hall swung open again and Percival strode in, straightening the cuffs of a long coat the exact shade of blue as the duster Percy had gotten blood all over. The gunpowder stains were gone, and his coat glimmered with gold embroidery just like Cassandra’s clothes, only in a more understated manner. There was no guard trailing him, unlike Cassandra.

“Afternoon, brother,” Cassandra said. Percival nodded as he took a seat on her other side. Both Percival and Cassandra seemed disinterested in keeping up a conversation. Vex glanced over at Percy a lot, but neither of them made a move to break the silence. There was only the clink of silverware on plates, at least until the doors burst open with a rougher push than either de Rolo had entered with.

“I found Tary,” Vex’ahlia announced, stomping inside. She was followed by an unfamiliar man - human, as far as Vex could tell, and with a stupid-looking blonde mustache and beard. His clothing was even more billowing than Percival’s, in bright bluish-greens and yellows. Vex caught a glimpse of actual buckled shoes “He doesn’t have Sending, though, so no go on an easier way of getting a message to anybody.”

“Vex? I thought you were still Hunting.” Cassandra straightened, but remained seated. 

“It’s complicated. I was here earlier, didn’t Percy tell you?” Vex’ahlia and the stranger each took a seat across from the four of them. The stranger was looking at interest between Vex and Percy and Vex’ahlia and Percival. 

“I thought you were playing a joke on me,” said the stranger. “This is - wow! Imagine, another me out there somewhere!”

“No offense, but I’d rather not.” Vex’ahlia gave him a winning smile. 

“For once, I’m actually lost,” Vex said. “I still don’t know what the Hunt is, and wherever you are on my side, I don’t know you.” She addressed the stranger, who looked disappointed for about half a second before his cheerful demeanor reasserted itself.

“Oh, that’s a shame. I was hoping to ask about my otherself. But where are my manners?” He seized her hand to give it a thorough shake, then did the same to Percy. “Taryon Darrington. Of course, I know  _ your  _ names.” 

“We seem to all be here, then,” Cassandra said, before Taryon could say anything else. “Shall we make our plans? I was led to believe that there was much to be done.”

“There is,” Percival said. “Starting with this other Ripley. We don’t know precisely when she may find her way here, but I don’t think it would be a good idea to post guards throughout the Parchwood to solve that particular problem. Letting her know that she needs to be on her guard is the last thing we want.”

“At the very least she won’t be expecting to stumble into another world,” Vex’ahlia said. “Any ideas on how we can use that?”

“Not at the moment.” Percival tapped his fork against the table like he’d half forgotten he was holding it. Taryon had set upon his own lunch, but was listening intently. “I was entertaining the idea of luring her over, somehow.”

“With what?” Vex’ahlia had forgone sitting down, instead leaning over the back of a chair with her arms crossed.

“Well, someone’s going to have to cross over to send a message to their version of the rest of us,” Percival said, gesturing at Vex and Percy. 

“What exactly happened to cause you two to cross over in the first place?” Cassandra asked, looking towards Vex and Percy. “Percy only told me a little of what you’ve told him.”

“It’s kind of a long story-” Vex began.

“It’s fine,” Percy cut in. “It’s better that everyone knows the whole situation.” But when he began their story, he started it after the Briarwoods had stopped being an issue.

It was funny, at least in Vex’s mind, that everything that had happened in the last twelve hours could be summed up so neatly. The Briarwood’s case had ended only that morning, settled decisively in favor of the couple being locked away forever. They had gone out to celebrate as a group with Cassandra in tow, and then they’d gone home and Percy had locked himself in his room for hours either processing his new future, where the Briarwoods did not cast the shadow of a constant threat of death should he be discovered by them, or having a panic attack. Or both. Percy omitted that part in his retelling, so Vex still had no idea which it was. 

Vex, ever the nature-lover, had drawn him out with an offer of a walk through the nearby nature preserve which sprawled along the seaside. Percy had agreed, mostly because she’d threatened to break the door down if he didn’t leave his room within the next ten minutes. They’d gone out; they’d realized Percy had left his phone at home, but continued on. Not ten feet into the nature preserve, they’d been ambushed by Ripley and her men. Ripley hadn’t wasted much time with threatening monologues, just snapped a few mysterious things at Percy. And then, of course, she’d shot him.

Percy added a little more context to Ripley’s appearance. He knew that she was a crony of the Briarwood’s, or at least had helped them to track down the artifacts that they’d stolen from the de Rolos (after, of course, murdering them to get them out of the way). He didn’t know why she worked for them, only that she did - or had. Nor did he know why she’d been so insistent that he not testify, or been furious enough to shoot him after the case was resolved. 

“I don’t know if I want to risk asking her, either,” he confessed. “I’d be content not to have to worry about her anymore.” 

“If all goes well, you won’t,” Percival said. He’d steepled his hands, pressing them against his lips, but he laid them down on the table authoritatively once Percy was done speaking. “I have the beginnings of an idea. If we can, as I said, lead Ripley here, she’ll be isolated and more easy to find. All of Whitestone can be on the lookout for her. Once we do find her, we can deal with her.”

“I don’t like the idea of  _ any  _ Ripley set loose on the population,” Cassandra said. Her eyes were cast down to the table; Vex couldn’t tell if she was lost in thought or in general melancholy. She seemed like a sad sort of person. “If she’s as clever as the one we knew, then setting her loose might do her more good than we expect.”

“She’ll still be at a significant disadvantage on this side of the portal.”

“Will she be alone?” Taryon asked. “I don’t know this Ripley, but it seems like a good idea to get her alone first.”

“We’ll need to be careful getting her over here,” was all Percival said. “Say we assume she brings her men with her. If we have guards ready in the Parchwood-”

“If she sees guards, she’ll spook,” Vex’ahlia said dismissively.

“Out of sight, then.”

“Darling, you overestimate the sneakiness of the average member of the Pale Guard. No offense, Ben,” she added, nodding shallowly at the guard still standing behind Cassandra.

“None taken,” Ben said. “This armor’s really loud sometimes and walking through snow isn’t very quiet.”

“How do you intend to lure her here, anyway?” That question was directed towards Percival. 

“Let me back up.” Percival straightened a little, like he intended to deliver a speech. “We send someone well-suited to stealth to send a message, and on the way back they attract the attention of Ripley  _ somehow _ \- and I say somehow because I can’t possibly plan for luring someone in by pretending to be a target in a world which I have never visited.”

“So, send Vax, you’re saying,” Vex’ahlia supplied.

“He  _ is _ very stealthy.”

“And that’s all?” Cassandra raised an unimpressed eyebrow as she lifted her gaze to Percival. 

“We’ve come up with far more elaborate plans in the course of our adventures, and they always fall apart within minutes as soon as anything starts to happen,” Percival replied. “I trust Vax’s talent for improvisation.”

Vex’ahlia scoffed. “His talent for improv is what got him into that mess the first time we fought the Briarwoods.”

“I recall.”

“Well, let’s have Vax here before we make too many plans, then.” Cassandra abruptly pushed her chair out to stand up. “How do you intend to get to Zephrah?”

“I was thinking we’d ask Allura? Percy said you’d finished the teleportation circle to Emon.”

“We have. For now, we’ll call matters settled, if that’s agreeable to you two?” Cassandra looked expectantly at Vex and Percy.

“I mean,” Vex said, “it sounds like you know a lot more about this kind of thing than we do. It sounds solid.” If it meant seeing this world’s Vax  _ and  _ getting a message to her brother, she’d go along with it.

“When you say ‘deal with Ripley’,” Percy said slowly, “I get the feeling you mean kill her.”

All four of the other-worlders traded glances. None of them looked caught-out, or in any way spooked - mostly, they looked surprised, like a teacher when a student asked a question they thought they’d already explained.

“Were you... _ not  _ wanting that to happen?” Vex’ahlia asked, as if the very concept failed to make any kind of sense to her. 

Percy opened his mouth, and then closed it, looking conflicted. He repeated the process a few times before managing, “Just clarifying.”

“To Emon, then,” Cassandra said. “I’ll have a few Pale Guard members ready when you come back.”

“Alright.” Vex’ahlia stood up, leaning back. “Tary, you want to come? You said you needed some spell components, and if we’re going to Emon we might as well buy some things.”

“Oh, yes!” Taryon perked up. “I need a few things before I finish your armor. Emon will be perfect.”

“I’m coming too,” Vex said, before she could even think about it.

Vex’ahlia appeared to think for about half a second, then shrugged and said “Sure, yeah. Let your hair down, though, you can only pass as Vax if nobody sees your ears.”

“Only if you do it too.”

“That’s fair.” Vex’ahlia pulled the end of her braid over her shoulder and began to undo it. “Tary, you need to run home for anything?”

“I’m sure Gilmore can give me a bag,” Taryon said confidently, springing to his feet. “To Emon!”

“To Emon!” Vex’ahlia punched the air.

“Get out of my hall and  _ go  _ already,” Cassandra said, unable to hide her smile.

* * *

 

Percy seemed ill inclined to let Vex leave on her own; he tagged along with the group as they entered a small room off a different hallway that ran out of the courtyard. It was mostly bare, lit by a few torches and the glow of an intricate circular design that had been carved into the floor. 

“Whoa,” Vex said, impressed.

“How does it work?” Percy asked. 

“With magic,” Vex’ahlia replied. “Tary, can you activate it? You know more arcane stuff than I do.”

“With pleasure.” Taryon stepped forward and placed a hand on a small pedestal which stood in front of the circle. It was set up like a touchscreen, with a tilted flat top, but it was solid stone with only a few etchings on its face, similar in style to the circle, but minus the glowing. As Taryon placed his hand over the etchings, he closed his eyes and began to mutter under his breath. Vex watched Percy watch the proceedings attentively, fingers twitching like he longed for his notebook. 

“Take these,” Vex’ahlia said, interrupting both of their attentive gazes to shove cloaks at the two of them. “It’s still winter - Emon’s further south, but the coats you came with won’t do much good.”

Vex fumbled with the cloak, feeling dramatic and a little silly as she swung it over her shoulders. In the few seconds it took to fasten the ties around her neck, Taryon’s eyes snapped open again. At the same time, the glow of the circle intensified. Over the exact center, the air in the room seemed to tear open, a flickering purple energy coalescing into a line and opening with an audible noise like paper - or something like it but different enough to be strange - ripping. 

“Alright, in, this only lasts for so long,” Vex’ahlia said authoritatively. Taryon strode through confidently, vanishing into the strange magical aether. As Percy and Vex stared, mouths agape, Vex’ahlia linked arms with both of them. “C’mon, to Emon, we said!”

Vex almost said  _ wait  _ as she was pulled forward- this was  _ too  _ strange, too much all at once, and she was so tired she was almost beginning to believe that this was all a very strange dream that she wanted to wake up from.

But the portal swallowed her, her vision becoming nothing but purple, and then she was blinking and stumbling to a halt, her arm still in Vex’ahlia’s very physical grip. They were in a blindingly white room, golden torch sconces holding strange (magical?) lights that came from no particular source. The ceiling arched high above them, and behind them the magical gap closed and vanished with a faint sigh.

“That was,” Percy said, and then paused. He was fiddling with his cuffs like he thought he should be straightening them. “Less than I expected.”

“If it was a bad way to travel, no one would use it.” Vex’ahlia was already leading them towards the door, where Taryon stood. “Come on, lots to see, places to go. Gilmore’s or Allura’s first?” The latter she directed towards Taryon.

“Gilmore’s; Allura’s taking us to Zephrah, isn’t she?”

“Gilmore?” Vex interrupted. She couldn’t resist grinning. “He’s here, too?”

“If there’s a world out there without Gilmore, I don’t want to live in it.” Vex’ahlia was smiling, too, as she flicked her hair out of her face. “What does he do on your side?”

“He’s got a bookstore,” Vex said. “Is it different here?”

Vex’ahlia and Taryon exchanged a look, and grinned. 

* * *

 

_ Gilmore’s Glorious Goods,  _ the storefront proclaimed. It was festooned with colorful draperies in the windows, and the building itself was painted purple, in contrast with the simple wood (and occasionally stone) buildings that surrounded it. The door was thick wood, with a shiny brass knob.

Vex wasn’t paying attention; the storefront was familiar, but everything else was not. She could have explored this other Emon for ages - it helped that it was far warmer here than in Whitestone, though the city had not escaped winter. They’d left the building she was told was the Alabaster Lyceum, only pausing for Vex’ahlia to negotiate with the recalcitrant gatekeeper (or portal-keeper? Circle-keeper?). Outside, the luxurious and surprisingly easily recognizable Cloudtop District had greeted them. At the top of the hill which the city rested on an unfamiliar palace rose, pale yellow stone and deep blue roofs cutting a striking figure. 

A wall of similar make enclosed the Cloudtop, which to Vex was odd. They passed through easily, though, the guards standing as straight at Vex’ahlia’s approach as the ones in Whitestone. On the other side, the less affluent sectors of Emon stood proud. There were no skyscrapers, no metal buildings at all; the occasional stone tower rose, unusual at only three or four stories tall. It was hilly, just like Vex’s Emon, and the city blanketed those hills in the same way. Trees, more commonly than at home, straggled up from in between walls and on the edges of roads, most of which seemed to be entirely dirt outside the Cloudtop.

The sprawl of wood and stone urban development trailed down to the edge of another wall on the shoreline. That one was dark stone, worse kept than the one that guarded the Cloudtop. Beyond it, the ocean glittered the same as it did at home, and ships went back and forth or sat at dock the same way; the only difference was, the ships were huge three-masted affairs, with billowing white sails and a mess of rope rigging everywhere. It was the same Emon Vex had always known, but transformed and sent back into the past. Gilmore’s store was almost comforting in its familiarity.

Any familiarity vanished as soon as Vex’ahlia opened the door. 

The interior was blanketed in perfumes even more overpowering than Gilmore’s usual carefully-placed incenses. The inside was brightly-colored enough as to be blinding. The walls and shelves were elaborately painted, and tables stood in odd places, covered in tablecloths and bearing strange goods. Candles flickered in ways that sent odd, but faint, shadows leaping and made the colorful liquids in the bottles on the shelves glimmer. The candles themselves burned with flames of all kinds of colors - red, blue, yellow, even one that looked silver. There were no books that Vex could see. The whole place was full of eye-catching things - it seemed too small to contain them all, yet bigger than she had expected. 

A broad counter in the back, guarding a doorway with a beaded curtain, was manned by a woman with pointed ears like Vex’ahlia’s. The counter too was draped in cloth, the same deep purple as the woman’s robes. She looked up as the four of them walked in, and sighed.

“Afternoon, Sherri,” Vex’ahlia said cheerfully. “Is Gilmore in?”

“Perhaps,” Sherri said, more pointedly than Vex had expected. Percy paused to examine a cube with strange carvings on each side. “Don’t touch unless you’re buying.”

“I was only looking,” Percy protested. 

“I’m in need of some ingredients,” Taryon proclaimed before the conversation could go any further. “ _ Is  _ Gilmore in? I’ve heard great things about the man!”

“C’mon, Sherri, we’re friends!” Vex’ahlia smiled winningly. Sherri sighed again, and closed the book she had been looking through with an impatient  _ thump. _

“I’ll tell him you’re here,” she said, and swept through the beaded curtain. As Taryon drifted away from the counter, probably to find whatever he needed, Percy bent down to look at an old-fashioned oil lantern.

“What  _ are  _ all these?” Vex asked. She could see, within five feet, an array of items that didn’t seem like they could possibly be related to each other. There was the cube and the lantern, plus a vividly red circlet resting on a golden cushion, a faded blue knit hat, a box with a few small pots of paint and a brush, a necklace with an empty glass vial in place of a pendant, and a glass orb that looked like an overlarge marble. 

“Magical items,” Vex’ahlia informed her. “Gilmore sells all sorts of things. I don’t know how he gets his hands on half of it. He could get you anything short of a Vestige, probably.”

“What’s a Vestige-?”

“My dear!” Gilmore burst through the beaded curtain with a clatter, grinning broadly. “You should have told me you were coming!”

“A surprise is better.” Vex’ahlia leaned over the counter to hug Gilmore, who had gone in for it first. Gilmore here wore robes the same shade of purple as Sherri’s, but in several different shades and covered in gold and silver embroidery. Rings shone on his fingers and earrings on his (human) ears, and several necklaces clinked together over the open chest of his clothing. Vex wondered if Gilmore at home was in the same kind of shape - if so, she owed Vax money, because she’d bet that Gilmore was the kind of guy who worked out and had eight abs, but it seemed that wasn’t the case. Or wouldn’t be. 

“If I’d known you would be in town, I would have made some space in my work schedule!” Gilmore released Vex’ahlia and turned to Vex with a grin, which faded as soon as he got a good look at her face. He looked between her and Vex’ahlia with rapidly dawning confusion. Even with both of them keeping their hair down, it was readily apparent to anyone who knew them that Vex was not Vax.

“Yeah, so,” Vex’ahlia began, “we  _ are  _ in Emon for a reason. It’s a weird story.” She leaned over the counter, beckoning Gilmore closer, and began to explain.

Percy sidled closer to Vex as the two spoke. “Do you think if I bought anything, it would still work back home?”

“Maybe?” Vex thought about it. “It might not work as well. Do you even have money?”

“Yes!”

“Money that works here?”

Percy paused, then scowled. “Damn.”

“How did you bring your  _ wallet  _ but not your phone?”

“It was already in my pocket, my phone was plugged in on the kitchen counter. Both were entirely an accident.”

“I kinda wish it had been the other way around.”

“Then  _ my  _ phone would’ve been destroyed, too.”

Vex winced. “Don’t remind me. I’m going to have to replace the one Ripley broke.”

“Ah, you must be Gilmore!” Taryon’s voice broke into both conversations. Vex turned to see him with an armful of...a lot of stuff she couldn’t possibly guess the purpose of. He rushed to dump them on the counter and stick his hand out at Gilmore. “Taryon Darrington, pleased to meet you!”

Gilmore raised his eyebrows, but took the proffered hand. “A friend of yours?” He asked Vex’ahlia.

“Something like that,” Vex’ahlia said. “He’s been on a couple adventures with us.”

“Before this goes any further...” Gilmore raised a hand, then pointed at Percy. “Is he-?”

“Percy? No. I mean, yes, technically, but no.” 

Gilmore gave Percy an appraising look before turning to the pile Taryon had dumped on the counter. “What’s all this for, then? Extra-universal magical spells?”

“No, just some regular enchantments,” Taryon said. “I dabble in artificing, and I’ve been working on a set of armor for Vex here over the last couple months. It needs enchanting.”

“An artificer? Fascinating.” Gilmore’s interest seemed to be piqued. He sorted through the pile. Vex could see a small bolt of white cloth, a leather belt, a hand mirror, a vial with what looked like diamonds inside, and a few other equally odd items. “What kind of enchantment are you trying to place?”

“Well, I’m  _ trying  _ to incorporate elements of a multitude of protective spells, as well as the usual, you know what I mean.” Gilmore made agreeable noises as Taryon continued, outlining some complicated magical setup that went in one of Vex’s ears and straight out the other. Percy listened intently.

“I suppose it  _ does  _ matter what material it is, given the nature of some of the enchantments, not to mention how it will look.” Gilmore eventually got a word in. “What were you thinking of?”

“We had a bunch of hide left over from Vorugal,” Vex’ahlia answered. Gilmore ‘aaahed’ appreciatively.

“Dragonhide will certainly be a sight. And it takes magic easily, which is lucky, or else some of these might be a bit of a waste.”

“Dragonhide?” Percy interrupted, startled. He’d taken a moment to gape. So had Vex, really. “Where do you get  _ dragonhide?” _

__ “Off a dragon, generally,” Vex’ahlia said. She was facing them, side-leaning against the counter casually, and so they could both see when she tapped the scaly clasp that still held her cloak. “It was the white one.”

“Those are all from  _ actual dragons?”  _ Vex demanded. “I thought it was jewelry!”

“It is now,” Vex’ahlia said. “Percy had them made. What’s the point of killing a bunch of dragons if you don’t take shit off the body?”

“I believe I still have the share you gave me from Thordak’s hide and hoard,” Gilmore mused aloud. “I should figure out what to do with the hide. It seems inappropriate to sell.”

“Make some armor for yourself?” Taryon suggested. “How much hide do you have?”

“Not much compared to how much there was overall, but he was a  _ very  _ large dragon.” Gilmore grimaced and gestured widely, as if implying the size. “I’ll leave it at that I  _ earned  _ what I got from the hoard. But on the subject at hand, I can give you this lot for...mm, two hundred and twenty gold?”

“I gather most of that is the diamonds,” Taryon said ruefully.

“They’re diamonds, my good man. I do need to make a living.”

“Not even a fought-Thordak-together discount?” Vex’ahlia leaned even further over the counter, propping her chin on her hands. “Gilmore, I thought we were worth more to you.”

“That’s already cheap for such jewels and I suspect you know it, Vex’ahlia.” Gilmore was smiling as though this dance was familiar. It was deeply weird to Vex to see her own haggling techniques played out without her involvement.

“One-fifty?” Gilmore raised a genteel, incredulous eyebrow, and Vex’ahlia quickly backtracked. “One-seventy.”

Gilmore maintained the eyebrow raise for a few more moments before sighing. A smile still played on his lips. “Only for my favorites, and don’t you dare tell anyone else. One hundred and seventy is acceptable.”

“As always, you’re my favorite, Gilmore.” Vex’ahlia was grinning widely as she turned back towards Taryon. “I’ll go halfsies with you if you want; it’s my armor in the end.”

“Much appreciated.” Looking a little relieved, Taryon pulled out a dark leather pouch. Between him and Vex’ahlia, a small fortune in embossed gold coins was pulled out of various small bags and secret pockets and whisked out of sight by Gilmore faster than any normal person should have been able to put away money. 

“Nothing for your guests while you’re here?” Gilmore looked expectantly towards Percy and Vex.

“I don’t carry  _ gold  _ on me,” Vex said, “so you’re gonna have to live with being disappointed.”

“Such a pity. You don’t need any help with this situation, do you?” Gilmore’s attention turned back towards Vex’ahlia. 

“We came to talk to Allura; we’ll be able to sort it out. I promise to call if things go south.” Vex’ahlia marked an X over her heart.

“Bring Vax with you, if you do return.”

“You know it, Shaun!” Vex’ahlia winked at him, and in short order the four of them retreated out of the shop and onto the street with only a wave from Gilmore.

“You call him ‘Shaun’?” Vex questioned, breathing the unaltered air deeply. She’d gotten used to the smell, but the inside of Gilmore’s shop was an experience even in  _ her  _ world. Magic made it even worse, and even better.

“You can’t reasonably fight a dragon with someone and not have first-name privileges,” Vex’ahlia said, helping Taryon stuff what they’d bought into his pockets. “I told you you should have brought a bag!”

“It’s not that much,” Taryon protested. “Here, I’ll wear the belt.”

“About the dragon,” Percy began delicately.

“Bunch of fuckers,” Vex’ahlia said promptly. “Normally they don’t make alliances, but we were unlucky like that and had to deal with four working together. They’re all dead now.”

“I...gathered from the fact that you had scales from all of them.” Percy nodded warily. “I’m just trying to picture any of  _ us  _ fighting a dragon. Or Gilmore. How did  _ he  _ get involved?”

“Well,” Vex’ahlia sighed, “his shop got busted up and then raided after the initial attack in the Cloudtop. We managed to find him and get him out with everyone else we could find, so all of us were together in Whitestone while we figured out what to do. He volunteered to come back with us when we came to face down Thordak. The red one, I mean.” She tapped the pin again.

“You mean the dragons were  _ here?”  _ Vex looked around at the city again. It looked like a regular city; maybe one with a lot of construction work, but that wasn’t abnormal, was it? “How long ago was this?” 

“A couple months?” Vex’ahlia hazarded. “Magic helps, when you’re rebuilding. I think Allura’s tower has been destroyed like twice now, and it’s still standing. I don’t know how the city’s going to pay all the people who were contacted to help rebuild, but people did come.”

Vex opened her mouth, closed it, and decided to focus on the easiest part of that sentence. “Allura’s got a tower?” She knew Allura only vaguely; she worked for the city, and they’d met her in the course of the Briarwood case. Vex was pretty sure Allura was the kind to have a nice townhouse, or something.

“Yeah, it’s awesome. It’s that white one - see?” Vex’ahlia pointed, and Vex squinted. She could indeed see the white tower she’d noticed earlier, standing within the Cloudtop. “We’ll get a better view once we’re back up there. C’mon. We’ve got a lot to do.”

* * *

 

It was a long walk back up to the Cloudtop. Percy was brooding the way he did when he was thinking hard, so Vex continued to stare at the city around them. If she looked closely, she could see traces of damage - ruined buildings that now stood empty, gashes that looked suspiciously like clawmarks on some of the stone. The marks of a dragon attack grew more frequent the closer they got to the wall that guarded the Cloudtop. 

Once again, they passed through the heavy-looking gate without being stopped by the guards. Within the Cloudtop, there were marks of destruction as well, now that Vex knew to look. Trees and the thin layer of snow over the winter ghosts of hedges masked the destroyed ruins of houses that were little more than cornerstones. A few buildings were coated in a web of construction platforms, buzzing with activity on every inch. A few times when they passed close enough people stopped to stare, perhaps recognizing Vex’ahlia or Taryon. Vex tried to stay unobtrusive.

Allura’s tower, when they reached it, seemed both taller and shorter in person. It soared up above Vex’s head, as well as the surrounding roofs, but it was only a few stories tall total. It would have been dwarfed by almost anything in Vex’s Emon, and that felt strangely like a letdown.

The tower  _ was _ white enough that it nearly glowed in the sunlight, and if there was any snow on it Vex couldn’t tell the difference between it and the walls. It was, height excepted, a suitably magical tower. 

Vex’ahlia knocked on the door. 

It was disappointingly mundane, for a knock. There wasn’t even a knocker to bang dramatically. Vex stomped her feet to get some feeling back into them and wished the seasons lined up properly between their worlds.

The Allura who opened the door, at long last, was a vision of a high-fantasy lady. With her blond hair precisely braided in a more elaborate style than Vex’s Allura and wearing a deep blue dress with draping sleeves and skirt, she cut a striking figure.

“Vex’ahlia!” Allura said, smiling. “I didn’t expect to see you today. Come in!”

“Thanks, Allura.” The rest of them crowded in after Vex’ahlia, who turned to continue facing Allura. “We came to ask for a favor, actually. There’s some shit going on again.”

“Nothing too bad, I hope.”

“Well...” Vex’ahlia gestured at Vex. Allura turned to face Vex, who could have pinpointed the exact moment when Allura realized that she wasn’t Vax.

“What on-” Allura looked between the two of them rapidly in confusion. “Vex’ahlia?”

“I should explain,” Vex’ahlia said. “The short version is, there’s a portal to another prime material plane in the Parchwood outside Whitestone that Pike accidentally crossed through a couple months ago, and there’s other versions of us there, and these two other versions in particular need help.”

“...I think I would like the long version,” Allura said slowly.

It was interesting to hear about Pike’s crossing from Vex’ahlia’s perspective. They knew almost nothing of what had happened to Pike in her adventures - just that she had vanished in the middle of their hunt for the ‘Vestiges’, whatever those were, and nearly hadn’t made it back in time for the fight against Vorugal, which Vex remembered was what Vex’ahlia had called the dragon whose scales she was having made into armor. Vex’ahlia also had to explain who Ripley was, briefly, outlining her as a ‘Briarwood crony we had to kill once before, it sucks’. 

“And so I was hoping you could help us get everybody back together,” Vex’ahlia finished. “Pike and Grog are all the way in Vasselheim, and Vax is with Keyleth in Zephrah, so we can’t Transport Via Plants. If you could get us to Zephrah, I’m sure we could go from there.”

“But of course,” Allura said promptly. “This Ripley sounds terrible. I’m glad I never had to meet her here. I do have some Council business today, but I’m sure if I come back promptly from Zephrah it won’t be a problem.”

“And you’ll be able to cast all the spells you need to?”

“Yes, I believe so.”

“Is there a limit to magic, usually?” Percy asked. Both Vex’ahlia and Allura turned to him with a small measure of surprise, as if they’d forgotten he was there.

“Sometimes,” Allura said. “Spells can only be cast so many times before the caster is too worn out and has to rest before continuing. The more powerful spell, the more energy it takes up and therefore the fewer times it can be used. But teleportation twice a day isn’t too much of a stretch, when done properly.”

“I see.” Vex could also see that Percy was dying to ask more questions. “Do you maybe have any basic books on magic-?”

“You can get those in Whitestone, dear,” Vex’ahlia interrupted. “Your Ripley situation is a little more pressing.”

“Right, right. Of course.”

“Should I take you now, then?” Allura rose from the seat she had taken while she listened to Vex’ahlia’s explanation. “If it’s urgent, then you should fetch your friends as quickly as possible.”

“If you can, that would be wonderful.”

“My only hesitance is that Zephrah lies in the mountains, and I’ve only been there two or three times,” Allura said. “I don’t know if we’ll arrive precisely in the right spot.”

“We can help, can’t we?” Taryon asked. “Vex and I have both been there before.”

“I don’t know. It may. I - I’m sorry, I don’t believe we’ve met.”

“Oh! No, I don’t think so either. Taryon Darrington.” Taryon stuck out his hand eagerly. Vex was pretty sure this made his name at least 50% of everything she’d ever heard Taryon say. 

“Allura Vysoren.” Allura shook his hand firmly.

“Let’s just  _ go, _ ” Vex’ahlia broke in impatiently. “Tary and I are both familiar with it, and if we miss I doubt we’ll appear in midair, because the spell doesn’t work like that. Right?”

“...Yes, fair enough. Midair seems unlikely.” But Allura looked more doubtful than Vex was entirely comfortable with. 

“Well, you know Feather Fall, don’t you?”

“Also true.” Allura’s confidence reasserted itself. She extended her hands. “If you wouldn’t mind?”

“Form a circle?” Percy asked doubtfully, even as he took Vex and Vex’ahlia’s hands. “Is this usual procedure?”

“It makes it easier,” Allura said. “I can transport up to eight others with me, and this way I don’t miss anybody.” She closed her eyes, and began to mutter under her breath, like Taryon had when activating the teleportation circle they’d used. Vex waited for a few breathless seconds for the spell to happen; nothing did. Only when she’d relaxed and begun to fidget, hands growing sweaty in the comfortable warmth of the tower, was there  _ something.  _

The air seemed to crackle and bend. There was a sudden burst of the same purple light, and what felt like an almighty yank. Vex stumbled forward, and hit her head against a flat stone wall.

“Ow!” She reeled backwards, but before she could step away a hand caught her arm.

“Careful,” Taryon warned. He’d been on her other side, and was looking behind her with wide eyes. Vex followed his gaze, and saw the cliff edge she’d nearly stepped over.

“Oh,” she said faintly, and then spit hair out of her mouth. The wind whipped powerfully around them, sending tiny puffs of snow flying off the top of the drifts that the five of them had plunged into. In almost every direction there was a sharp fall, and beyond the edge a stunning vista of mountains. The stone she’d smacked into was a jagged outcropping that partially blocked a switchback ascent through a narrow valley that led higher up onto the mountains that they’d landed on.

“I hope we’re not too far away,” Allura said, looking around. The sleeves of her dress blew dramatically behind her, and she was keeping a hand clamped over her braids.

“We’re not,” Vex’ahlia said, grinning. When everybody looked at her questioningly, she only pointed up. 

Vex looked up.

Far above them, small figures were flying. They didn’t look like birds, but they were undoubtedly riding the strong flow of the wind. Vex could only make out the faintest shape of some kind of batlike wings.

“Fantastic!” Taryon announced. “It must be just this way!” He started towards the canyon-like valley and the winding path. Allura followed; Vex’ahlia hung behind for a moment.

“I promise if you fall somebody will catch you,” she said, looking at the two of them. “If not us, the Ashari, at least.”

Vex looked at Percy. He was, as per usual, taking in the view. 

“I wish I had my sketchbook,” he murmured.

“When we get home, I’ll help you remember,” Vex said. “Shall we?”

With a shake of his head, Percy stepped away from the edge and towards the path. “Of course.”

* * *

 

Zephrah was higher up than Vex had anticipated. The winds seemed to grow stronger as they ascended without any sign of their destination approaching; Allura kept a hand clamped over her braids to keep them from tangling like everyone else’s hair was. Vex had to keep shaking her hair out of her face so she wouldn’t be blinded and accidentally walk off an edge (though there were, thankfully, few of those that they encountered). She kept the borrowed, fur-lined cloak pulled tight around her, trying to keep it from flaring out behind her. Even with the warmer borrowed clothes and cloak, the wind sent jagged fingers of cold down Vex’s neck and through her whole body. 

Vex’ahlia, at least, seemed to know where they were going. She led them surely upwards and upwards, until Vex thought they might walk straight into the sky, or else get so high up that they fainted from lack of air. But just as she was beginning to really consider sitting down forever, the vicious wind stopped dead, leaving nothing but stillness.

They were dizzyingly high, so Vex quickly reconsidered looking around for the source of the sudden cessation when the first two glances nearly gave her vertigo. The other three were still walking forward, so she instead linked arms with Percy and, pretending to be more confident than she really was, dragged him forward with her.

Rounding a corner was all it took. The canyon walls leveled off quickly, in staircase-like segments. Vex realized, with a jolt, that the blocky shapes were houses built into the stone side of the mountain. Wrinkled-looking trees straggled into a semblance of normal tree shape, some surprisingly thick and healthy-looking. Many were barely large enough to support the weight of the snow that even here was drifted over everything, smoothing out the harsh rock. Some had grown through houses, or had houses built around them. Some of the houses looked as though  _ they  _ had grown, too, straight out of the rock itself. 

There were people there as well. Mostly they were just flashes of movement through windows, but those who were outside stopped to look at the newcomers. Several waved, appearing to recognize members of their party. 

“Hey, Korrin!” Vex’ahlia yelled, waving back at one who had begun to approach. Evidently, she recognized him, too. “Where’s Keyleth and my brother? We need them!” 

“They’re out of town at the moment,” Korrin replied, coming to a halt in front of the group. “I wasn’t expecting you to come here - they’re meant to return to Whitestone in only a few days.”

“The situation’s changed,” Vex’ahlia said. “Mind if we come inside?”

“But of course.” Korrin beckoned, and led them to one of the larger homes. He walked with a limp, which meant crossing the smallish open plaza felt like it took an age. As soon as they were inside, Vex gratefully collapsed into a chair, shivering.

“What exactly  _ is  _ the situation?” Korrin asked warily, looking at Vex askance. He had evidently noticed the two Vex’ahlias. Vex tuned out her counterpart as she began to explain, yet again, about the portal and everything that happened. She was more interested in getting as close as possible to the small fire which was burning in a hearth at one end of the room. Percy crowded in next to her, looking to be in a similar state. 

“That’s certainly...strange,” Korrin said once Vex’ahlia had finished. “Is it anything like the openings into the elemental planes?”

“I don’t know,” Vex’ahlia said. “I’ve never been through it myself. I guess it must be something similar, but it’s reaching another planar system instead. I’m sure Percy’s had eighty ideas about it already.”

“It’s good that you’re taking Keyleth to look. She’ll be able to figure it out.”

“Oh, yeah! Keyleth knows loads more than I do about Ashari stuff like that.”

“If you don’t mind,” Allura interjected, “but I may be able to do some research of my own back in Emon. Which I should be getting back to. Will you be alright?”

“We’ll be fine,” Taryon said. “Our thanks, Allura. I hope to see you again soon!”

Allura nodded, and closed her eyes. Vex watched her go through the process of the teleportation spell again, fascinated despite having witnessed it only a few minutes before. From the outside, Allura appeared to vanish in a milliseconds-brief flash of purple. 

“Magic is so cool,” Vex muttered, and turned back to the fire.

“Where  _ are  _ Vax and Keyleth?” Taryon asked. “I was hoping we could be quick about this.”

“Keyleth went to investigate a problem we’ve been having with some griffins,” Korrin replied. “Vax volunteered to go with her, along with a few others. They should be back in a few hours, at least.”

“That must have been who we saw on the skysails,” Vex’ahlia murmured. “Thank you, Korrin. We’ll wait here, if that’s alright with you.”

“That’s fine. I’m sure Keyleth will be glad to see you, regardless of the circumstance.”

They ended up waiting for several hours, all of which Vex spent within three feet of the fire. Percy got bored of being warm after about forty minutes, and went to pester Korrin with all sorts of questions about planes and portals and why the Ashari or Keyleth would know more. Indirectly, Vex learned along with him about the Ashari duty of guarding various other planar openings, though theirs were into planes that existed in the same planar system, whatever that meant. Percy nodded and made understanding noises, so Vex assumed whatever book he’d gotten from Percival about the planes had helped. It was all magical-sounding nonsense to her. 

Her hair was tangled so thickly from the wind that combing it out was impossible; Vex gave it up after a few attempts. She stayed curled up in the surprisingly comfortable chair, the warmth of the fire and the hum of conversation washing over her.

It had been a  _ very  _ long day...

* * *

 

“Vex.”

“Mmnh. What?” Vex tried to pull away from the hand shaking her. The voice attached to it sounded like Percy.

“Wake  _ up,  _ Vex. We’re going.”

“Wha’bout Vax...?”

“Right here,” said an amused, different voice that sounded precisely like her brother. Vex scrubbed a hand across her eyes and blinked them open. 

The fire had died down, but only a little. Percy was bent over her, though he gave her some space once she opened her eyes. 

“You fell asleep,” Percy said. “It’s been a few hours, and the other Vax and Keyleth are back.” He glanced to the side, and Vex looked over to see her brother.

Or - not her brother, but close enough. Vax’s counterpart was wearing dark studded leather armor that had some kind of mantle of feathers over the shoulders of it, and a cloak fastened to dark silver clasps. He was leaning back in a chair with his feet on the low table, so Vex could easily see the elaborately worked leather of his boots. The back and heels of them were some kind of blue material, and they looked worn and soft. The soles were scuffed, as if from rough treatment or simply age. Around his waist gleamed a silvery, snakelike belt, as well as the handles of an array of daggers that looked to be far better quality than the knives her Vax carried. He also had an earring identical to the ones Vex had seen on both Vex’ahlia and Percival already; gold, and set with a deep blue stone. 

Keyleth, just behind him, made for an even more striking figure. The silver antlered circlet, even without the flowers decorating it, would have done that much on its own. The flowers themselves looked oddly alive; so did her cape, once Vex noticed it. Green leather formed the shoulder half of a cloak which flowed to the ground in a cascade of autumn leaves. Underneath she had leather armor like Vex’ahlia’s, except with accents of brass embroidery instead of frost. She held a tall, similarly natural-looking staff with a green crystal suspended by presumably magical means within the curled top, and-

“Okay,” Vex said, still half-asleep. “What’s with the earrings?”

Vax raised his eyebrows, while Keyleth reached up to the one she wore - identical in size and placement to Vax’s (and Vex’ahlia’s and Percival’s). Strangely, Taryon also fiddled with the dangling blue crystal that he wore on the other ear. 

“It’s magic, obviously,” Vax said. “Would’ve thought that one would be obvious.”

“Let’s be fair, we  _ would  _ get matching earrings just for fun,” Vex’ahlia said. Her hair had been neatly rebraided while Vex was asleep, probably due to Vax’s mere presence. 

“How exactly are they magical?” Percy asked. Vex rubbed at her eyes more harshly, wiping away the grit of sleep, and made an effort to wake up properly. She must have been more tired than she’d thought. The accidental nap had helped with that, but only a little bit.

“It’s imbued with a version of Sending,” Keyleth hastened to explain. “As long as we’re within five hundred feet of each other, we can talk. It’s come in handy a  _ lot. _ ”

“Oh, so like a walkie-talkie,” Percy said. Vax snorted; Keyleth looked blank. “It’s - nevermind. It’s a thing from my side.”

“That would be the world I’m supposed to be getting a message to?” Vax clarified. “The one we have to get Pike and Grog back to deal with?”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re impatient.” Vex’ahlia dismissed the pointed words easily. She reached out towards Vex, then appeared to think better of it - probably remembering what had happened the last time they’d touched. 

“Where are we going?” Vex got to her feet, allowing Percy’s helping hand. 

“Vasselheim,” Vex’ahlia said. “Which means more transportation magic, and then back to Whitestone.”

“That’s a lot,” Vex grumbled. She groggily followed the group back outside, where the cold air jolted her back to proper awareness. As she irritably pulled her cloak closer around her, Keyleth strode confidently to the nearest large tree and laid her hands on the bark.

“Be ready,” Vax warned her and Percy, hovering just behind them. “This spell only lasts for six seconds, so you’ve got to run if you want to be sure of making it through.”

“Fun,” Vex sniffed, wiping her nose. It had begun to run almost as soon as she’d stepped out the door. Vax smirked crookedly, hearing the sarcasm loud and clear.

“Ah!” Keyleth said in delight, as in the same moment the tree cracked in half and yawned wide under her hands, the sides bowing outwards to form a gaping door.

Vax shoved Vex forward, which was the only reason she remembered to move quickly instead of gaping at the sight.

She stumbled into a snowdrift just as large as the one she’d been shoved through. Keyleth caught her before she could fall all the way into it, which Vex muttered a  _ thank-you  _ for. She pulled her foot up, examined her re-soaked sneakers with despair, and looked up as she put her foot back down.

_ “Whoa,”  _ she said. “It looks almost  _ exactly  _ like the pictures I’ve seen.”

Vasselheim, on her side, was pretty famous for having barely changed since the Divergence. It was the only city to have survived since the Divergence, too, and that track record made its inhabitants stubborn and firmly grounded in what their city already was. Any modern buildings within the still-strong city walls were residential, or shops that had sprung up as businesses were created and rendered obsolete and replaced by more modern organizations. Near the center, around the mountain, was the oldest and most unchanged part.

Spearing into the air,  _ very  _ far away from where they stood outside the walls, the same mountain stood within sight. Barely visible were the buildings that jutted out from its side, and the paths up its sides were miniscule grey lines. Low-hanging clouds laid heavily over the whole scene, threatening to let down even more snow than already blanketed the city. Closer, on the walls, Vex could see strange carvings that looked like yawning monsters.

“Huh,” Keyleth said thoughtfully. “Did Emon look the same?”

“Not at all.”

“Weird.”

“Yes, very, we can discuss it later,” Vex’ahlia said, pulling her cloak out of the way just as the tree snapped shut behind them. “Anyone know where Pike and Grog would be?”

“The Crucible?” Vax suggested, at the same time that Keyleth said, “The temple of Sarenrae?”

“Which is closer?”

“There’s no temple of Sarenrae in Vasselheim,” Percy said, frowning.

“Not yours, maybe,” Vax replied immediately. “Crucible’s closer - the temple’s up on the mountain, isn’t it?”

“What’s the Crucible?” Vex asked.

* * *

 

The Crucible, as Vex would shortly discover, was a three or four foot deep pit big enough for two fairly large people to beat the shit out of each other in. 

It was being used when they approached. The aforementioned discovery was postponed by the thick crowd clustered around the edges, yelling and cheering on the people inside. It seemed to be a mix of all kinds - there were humans, yes, but plenty of nonhumans as well. There were people with ears pointed like Vex’ahlia’s (and Vax’s), or who had faintly greenish skin and sharp canine teeth which poked up above their lips. There were others as short as Pike - Vex nearly tripped over a stocky bearded man, going grey at the roots, who barked an insult at her without looking away from the fight. 

“What the fuck,” Vex whispered, grabbing Percy’s arm, when she saw the scaly reptilian figure, dragon-headed but standing upright on two legs and eagerly watching the fighters. Percy blinked, took his glasses off and wiped them on his shirt, put them back on, and blinked rapidly again for several seconds. Vex tried that, too. The figure’s scales still shone, bright as brass.

“I guess your side being ‘humans only’ means you’ve never seen a dragonborn, huh.” Vax’s amused voice came from behind as he clapped a hand on Vex’s shoulder. “C’mon, leave the staring for later. Let’s see what all the fuss is about.”

‘The fuss’ meant the fighters. The crowd was reluctant to let itself be shoved through, but the three of them managed it, ending up on the lip of the pit. Vex’ahlia and Taryon had gone in a different direction, presumably to more easily find Pike and Grog. Vex got a good look, finally, at who was being cheered on.

There was another one of what Vax had called ‘dragonborn’ in the sandy pit, silver instead of brass. They were bleeding and looked almost bruised; as Vex watched, they spat blood onto the sand and grinned, a long tongue flicking out through their sharp teeth. 

The other fighter growled in response. He was huge, evidently not human, grey-skinned with jagged black tattoos all over his bald head and back. He was shirtless, too, unlike the dragonborn, and bruised to hell and back. Some places where the skin had split had bled, and the blood had been smeared all over. It was a more gory sight than Vex had expected.

“Called it,” Vax said nonsensically, and then looked around before shouting, “Vex! Where’s Pike?”

Vex’ahlia’s reply was lost in the hard smack of the grey one’s fist hitting the dragonborn and the resulting deafening cheer. The dragonborn reeled backwards, but kept their feet. A couple boos were tossed out.

The grey one reared back again, and kicked the dragonborn onto their back down before stomping down hard. Vex winced and looked away - it reminded her too much of some of the worse times the Clasp had gone after her Vax, when they were trying to keep him from turning state’s witness. She’d seen enough blood to last a lifetime.

The fight didn’t end there, of course. The crowd gasped and oohed, and occasionally Vex snuck a glance through her fingers to see who was winning, though the blood always made her regret it. The grey one was big, but the dragonborn was wily and only a little bit smaller. It seemed like an even match.

“Oh!” There was a small gasp, and Vex looked down to see Pike. It was the first, technically, familiar face she’d seen since she got her. Gnomish Pike wasn’t wearing her armor, only a set of warm clothes, a pair of tough-looking gauntlets, and a look of surprise. 

Pike said something else, but Vex only saw her mouth move - the words were drowned out by a roar of applause. In the pit, the dragonborn appeared to have been knocked out, and the grey one was punching the air in victory. Percy, when Vex glanced at him, was staring determinedly ahead, gaze lifted just above the fighters.

“I suppose blood sports aren’t surprising, given everything else we’ve seen here,” he said, barely audible. 

“Pickle!” Vax sounded delighted, from what made it to Vex’s ears, when he noticed Pike. He bent down to talk to hear, quieter words that were completely lost in the hubbub. The crowd was moving, now, celebrating or groaning or exchanging gold and silver coins. Ladders were being lowered into the pit, and a group of humans jumped in and went straight for the dragonborn. One split off to go towards the grey one, who tolerated hands being laid on him long enough for the human to create some kind of swirl of bluish energy. As he shook the human away, Vex could have sworn that some of his injuries had healed. A tap on her leg made Vex look down again.

“Hi again!” Pike bellowed, making herself heard over everyone else. “Sorry it’s under shit circumstances!”

“Me too!” Vex had to yell back. Vax leaned down again to poke Pike sharply in the shoulder, and gesture towards the pit.

“Oh, right!” Pike shoved past an only slightly taller bearded woman to get to the edge.  _ “Grog!  _ We gotta go!”

Vex’s jaw dropped as the grey fighter turned around, brow furrowed. He had a thick black beard, matted with blood on one side, and the tattoos continued over his head to streak across his eyes. 

“What for?” He asked complainingly. Pike gestured pointedly at Vex and Percy. 

“We  _ gotta!  _ They need help back in Whitestone!”

“Alright, alright.” Grog huffed and stomped over to the nearest ladder to haul himself out. The crowd parted like a sea for him, a few people laughing and patting his arms or offering what sounded like congratulations. Vex slowly raised her head higher and higher as he approached, realizing that grey Grog stood a good two or three  _ feet  _ taller than her. Percy, who was a couple inches shorter than Vex, took a small step backwards.

“I don’t see anything wrong with anyone,” Grog said, looking down at Pike, whose head reached roughly his knee. 

“It’s the guys I met when I was gone for a while,” Pike said, pointing at Vex and Percy again. “Remember, when I said I went to another plane where there were different versions of us?”

“Ohhh.” Grog looked at the two of them, then back at her. “So?”

“We can explain on the way, big guy,” Vax said, smiling. “We gotta get back to Whitestone first.”

“That’s gonna take a while.”

“It’s alright, we got Keyleth.”

“Really?” Grog brightened and looked around. Among the dispersing crowd, even Vex could easily spot the antlers of Keyleth’s circlet jutting above the heads of most of the people. Grog set off towards her, long strides moving him faster than Vex had expected from such a large person.

“What the fuck,” she said again, quietly, to Percy.

“It is another world,” Percy replied, but he was still staring after Grog with wide eyes. “I’m sure it would be easier to adjust if he hadn’t just beat a...person into unconsciousness. And wasn’t covered in blood.”

None of their counterparts or company seemed at all bothered by the blood, though. Keyleth had grinned as soon as she’d caught sight of Grog, and they were all talking animatedly. As Vex and Percy approached, the conversation clarified into individual words.

“You were fighting griffins without me?” Grog sounded disappointed.

“You were in Vasselheim,” Keyleth protested. “And it was just two.”

“You’re actually  _ still  _ in Vasselheim,” Vax pointed out. “Zephrah’s a long way away.”

“Not from Whitestone,” Grog argued. 

“We’re not in Whitestone yet, are we? Grab your shit and we’ll go.” 

“It’s all still at the Slayer’s Take,” Pike said. She looked up at Grog. “Are we gonna come back after this? We could leave some of it here.”

Grog thought for about three seconds before shaking his head. “Nah, I’m gonna need all of it.”

“Cool. Okay. Let’s go!”

* * *

 

Vex, still tired even with the nap she’d taken earlier softening the edge of exhaustion, mostly just trailed along behind the group as they made their way deeper into Vasselheim. Too quickly, and yet not soon enough, they were changing gears, Pike having re-acquired her armor and Grog having collected about eighty pounds of very sharp weaponry. It was back through the city and past the wall for all of them, and then through another tree, stumbling out into the central square of an unfamiliar city.

Vex, blearily, overheard Percy being told that yes, they were in Whitestone, this was the city proper. She didn’t even care that they were led to a house inside the city rather than back to the castle. Vax’s amused voice and arm around her shoulders trailed her to the doorway of a sparse, slightly dusty bedroom; then Vex wriggled under the covers and was asleep.

* * *

 

She woke once, in the middle of the night. It was too dark out to see much of anything, except shadows and not-shadows. Faint moonlight came in through the windows, and in the distance a clock tolled - once, twice. The blanket tucked around her was warm and thick, and though she could tell that she was still wearing her shoes and everything, it wasn’t uncomfortable.

Vex reached down, took off her boots and tossed them to the floor. Then she unpinned the cloak, balled it up around the sharp pin, and shoved that away too before putting her head back down. If it was still dark, it was too early to be awake. 

* * *

 

The second time she woke, the light coming into the room was the pale grey of an early morning. Vex sat up, and immediately regretted it - it was  _ very  _ cold, even inside, compared to the warmth of the blanket. Reaching out yielded the cloak from the other day within grabbing distance, so Vex untangled it and wrapped it around herself again before braving standing up.

One of her socks had fallen off at some point during the night. Vex had to scavenge around the tossed sheets for it before she dared put her shoeless feet on the floor. But even as she got up with her sock feet, she noticed that the floor was wooden, not stone. 

Oh, that was right - they hadn’t gone back to the castle the night before. Day before, Vex corrected in her head. She knew they were in Whitestone, because it was too cold to be anywhere else, but  _ where  _ in Whitestone was an interesting question.

Gods above, she wished she were home. 

Exploration provided some information: she was in a very large, very nice house. It was sparsely furnished, but everything looked like it was made to last, and made to look nice besides. 

She found, eventually, a dining room. It wasn’t nearly as grand as the great hall of the castle, but it still managed to have a tall ceiling and a long table with a vase set in the center. At a random seat on the far side, Vax was sharpening a dagger, his feet on the chair next to his. A plate sat in front of him, covered with the remains of breakfast, and at the place next to his a covered dish sat. 

“Morning,” Vax said, pulling the knife down the block in front of him. A whetstone, it was called, wasn’t it? It appeared to be one, anyway. The knife made a raspy noise when dragged down it. “You’re up early.”

“I’m not tired anymore,” Vex said. She stood in the doorway for another moment or two, examining the Vax-who-was-not-her-brother. She fell into old habits with him easily, and he’d allowed them yesterday. She’d been too tired to notice if Vex’ahlia had been giving them odd looks for it. But he was Vax, in most ways that counted. The only difference was the setting, and his habits. Like the daggers. 

Vex’s stomach growled, and Vax looked up from his daggers to raise his eyebrows at her. “Are you trying to make some kind of comment, standing there like that?”

“No,” Vex said defiantly. “I’m trying to figure out if there’s any more breakfast left. And if those daggers are enchanted.”

“This one is.” Vax raised it, examining the blade, and then used it to point at the covered dish. “And you can always steal Keyleth’s. By the time she gets back, enough people will be awake that we’ll be able to have a proper breakfast.”

“Where’s Keyleth need to come back from?” Vex was already moving, skirting behind his chair and taking the empty seat. Underneath the cover was a small stack of toast and a little butter and jam on the side. She found a knife (one of many set on either side of the plate) and set about heaping on condiments.

“She’s talking to the Sun Tree.”

Vex paused. “...To a  _ tree?” _

__ “She’s got a Speak with Plants spell, I figure it’s a druid thing.” Vax shrugged, and twirled the dagger, sticking it back into its sheath in the same graceful movement. He caught Vex looking as he drew the next one out. The first had had a blue handle, and the blade shone; the new one had a blade of black metal, and the handle was wrapped in dark leather.

“Is that one enchanted, too?” Vex asked, dumping more jam onto her toast. 

“All of them are, to some degree.” Vax set about carefully sharpening the new dagger. He wrapped a napkin around his fingers before he set them on the point of the blade and drew it slowly towards himself along the whetstone’s surface. 

“What’s that one do?” Vex sprayed a few toast crumbs as she spoke. Vax gave her a dirty look.

“It’s called a Dagger of Lifestealing.”

“Sounds ominous.”

“It’s meant to.” Vax made a couple slow swipes. “It deals necrotic damage in addition to, y’know, being stabbed.” 

“Necrotic?”

“It kills things slightly faster than an unenchanted dagger.” 

Vex watched the careful way Vax was avoiding even touching the blade with his bare skin, and shoved the rest of the toast in her mouth in lieu of figuring out how to reply. Vax didn’t seem to mind the lack of one. He kept carefully sharpening as Vex ate. 

“This one’s called the Dagger of Venom,” he said unexpectedly when he swapped in a third dagger. He wrapped his fingers extra securely in the napkin (both hands, this time) before putting them anywhere near the blade. “This one’s a Flametongue Dagger,” he said a little later when revealing a fourth, which burst into flames as soon as it was removed from its sheath and made Vex jump nearly a foot off the chair. That one, he didn’t touch at all with his hands, not even with the protective napkin, which made sharpening it a tricky maneuver.

Eventually, when the Flametongue Dagger had left several black scorch marks on the whetstone block, Vax asked, “So what am I supposed to be doing on your side?”

“I don’t think we got that far, planning what we were doing,” Vex said. The toast was nothing more than minuscule crumbs, and the napkins seemed far too nice to use to wipe the jam off her fingers. 

“Sounds about right for us.” Vax balled up the napkin he had been using so that the scorched spot was hidden and tossed it onto the table. “We should go talk to Cassandra, then. She’ll be up this early, or Percy will. If you’ve got any advice to give me for going into your world, think it up on the way to the castle.”


	2. it continues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I return! meant to try and wrangle a christmas chapter, but that didn't happen for anything, ha. I haven't been writing a ton. Which is partly why this chapter was so much shorter, but also there wasn't as much to write!
> 
> tbh i was shocked anyone commented on this at all, so shoutout to those three ppl. it felt really nice for other people to be interested in this super, super self indulgent crossover of sorts.

Vax ventured through a portal into another world with nothing more than his daggers, hidden under the now-clean, borrowed blue duster that the Other Percy had worn on his way onto Vax’s side.

It was not strictly true that that was  _ all  _ he had, but Vax felt naked, being forced to leave his armor and most of his usual equipment behind. Other Vex and Other Percy were insistent upon what would be noticed and what would allow him to look like he belonged on their side of the portal. He’d barely convinced them to allow the Boots of Haste, and even then only mostly hidden under the sturdy blue pants that Vex had worn when she crossed, which pinched uncomfortably in the general crotch area and wouldn’t stay at a good height on his waist without Simon’s help. Vax was lucky he had his dagger belt, too, or else he’d have to worry about accidentally mooning someone if he had to use Simon. The ‘jeans’ seemed like pretty good adventuring pants, but if anybody ever got around to inventing them on his side, he’d have to take them to a better tailor first. 

Still, it was pretty nice of Other Vex and Other Percy to let him borrow their clothes. Even if it was a lot more blue than Vax was used to wearing. He kept the long coat buttoned up tight, both to hide his daggers and to disguise the shirt that he’d been warned would not pass for ‘usual’ on the other side unless he was standing ten feet away from whoever was looking at it. The duster was thin enough to be uncomfortable in the deep Whitestone winter, but as soon as Vax stepped through the invisible split between worlds, the air warmed to only a faint chill, and freshly-fallen leaves crunched under his boots.

Immediately, Vax took a careful step directly backwards and put his foot down on familiar snow. He pivoted, and hugged Vex before she could say anything. His sister had come with him to help him track down the location of the portal, and so of course she was standing close enough for him to reach.

“Keep the plan in mind,” Vex said, hot breath settling like summer humidity on his ear in contrast with the freezing air. She squeezed him tightly. “We don’t need a Jenga situation when we’re too far away to hear the alarm.”

“I’ll be fine,” Vax said. “I can play bait safely. It’ll be our otherselves who are the problem.”

“Well, you know how to herd Keyleth, at least. Maybe see if the other Pike is any good at helping, if she’s there.” Vex released him and stepped back. Trinket, who she had insisted come along, huffed and groaned in his special bearish way of talking. “Don’t get shot.”

“No promises,” said Vax, and stepped back through.

Autumn in Other Emon was pleasant, though spring would have been better after all the winter he’d been enduring, first in Zephrah and then in Whitestone. Vax, remembering the directions he’d been given, found the hiking trail nearby and followed it towards where he could see distant, shining buildings rising above the trees. It seemed to be just before sunset, which matched somewhat with the time difference Other Vex and Other Percy had mentioned. Vax was fine with that; he liked working at night best. 

Occasionally other hikers passed Vax, giving him perfunctory curious looks. He’d arranged his hair very purposefully, so none noticed his ears. It was something he’d perfected early on with the Clasp - humans always trusted other humans better, and the Clasp was majority human, along with basically all of Tal’Dorei. Or so it seemed, in urban areas.

Here, it was  _ all  _ human. The closer Vax got to the city, the more numerous those humans were, and the stranger it became to not see a dwarf or halfling or gnome passing among the crowd. Even half-elves or dragonborn, uncommon as they were, were conspicuously absent. 

The city itself was strange. The buildings were made of red stone or glass and metal which shone in the light, everything crowded together familiarly but structured in a way that was not. It was only familiar enough to make the unfamiliarities all the more obvious.

Electric (nonmagical!) lights stood on every street corner and lined the ways in between, lending extra illumination to the fading evening and glistening off all the glass and metal. In shop windows, more colorful lights hung between various papers in various languages which said that they were OPEN, or circulated from blue to a painfully bright green to red and so on and so on. Growling metallic vehicles, which Vax had been warned about, swarmed on the hard black roads so that pedestrians were squeezed onto specially-made cement walkways. Trees straggled up from small open squares or grates with holes on the walkways that were barely large enough to accommodate their trunks. They were choked by synthetic stone and the limits of their homes rather than the cluster of urban development, and only surviving by virtue of human encouragement. Someone had to have planted them there, if holes had been made in the stone for them. Still, it was sparser cover than Vax was used to, and he disliked it. Everything seemed to be metal and glass, brick and electric light. The air he breathed in made Vax think of Pyrah more than of his Emon. The banners that hung from the lampposts were in Common, and yet made no sense. 

Vax was ill at ease, and that on top of everything else he disliked the most.

Vax forced himself to keep a casual walking pace and ducked into the first park he saw. It had barely more trees than the rest of the city and mostly contained some kind of sports field and a pathetic layer of browning grass. Nevertheless, he’d memorized Other Vex’s instructions - the park was one stop on a series of landmarks that would lead him straight to his otherself.

* * *

 

Vax’s otherself lived in a building with peeling paint, much-graffitied brick sides, and a spy on the roof of the building opposite.

Vax, now that he knew he was in the right place, allowed himself a detour. The brightly-lit streetlights were unfortunate, but also pointed down. They were for the benefit of the road-hog mechanical vehicles, not for anyone hiding on a roof. He’d only noticed the spy because of his elvish darkvision - to any human, they would have been invisible.

That was perfect, because as long as he was silent, no human would notice him.

Almost every building had iron staircases on the outside, in the alleys out back or on the side. Vax had to leap to get onto the bottom level, but after that it was easy to climb and silently creep across the roof to brain the spy with the handle of Whisper. She crumpled, and Vax grabbed the contraption she had been holding before it fell out of her hand and down to the walkway below. 

He couldn’t make heads or tails of it. A convex dish with four prongs that met at a point was attached to a handle, with a thin black cord that connected to a pair of odd earmuffs that the spy wore. However, she’d been pointing it in the direction of his otherself’s house, and he recognized spying when he saw it, especially given that she had what looked like a double pair of telescopes that looked like they were meant to be fitted over the eyes. Vax took them, just for the hell of it, stabbed the contraption to hell and back just in case, and left the spy on the roof. Probably one of Ripley’s, but he didn’t know what to search her for that might give away her employment. Anyway, what were the odds that anyone other than Ripley wanted something to do with his otherself?

What were the odds that Ripley wanted  _ him,  _ anyway? She was probably waiting for Other Vex and Other Percy to show up again.

Vax snuck back across the street by going to the designated crossing zone and copying the other people who were waiting for the barrage of mechanical vehicles to pause at the signal of the lights. He’d put Whisper back and buttoned up the coat again before he’d so much as left the roof, and so nobody looked at him for more than a second except a youngish human girl who was paying a lot of attention to his long hair. Vax assumed it was because it was an unusual style here; he hadn’t seen many men with hair past their ears. 

There was an outdoor metal staircase on Other Vax’s building. Vax climbed it as silently as he could, and listened closely at each window.

The first floor was full of the smell of food and the chatter of voices in a language that sounded a bit, but not much, like Marquetian; Vax had to sneak under the window and climb up the side and over the railing of the stairs so he wouldn’t be seen. The second floor was quiet; the inhabitants there had tucked in early. The third floor almost seemed the same, but a doorway leading out of the kitchen which the window opened into spilled light into the otherwise dark room, and quiet voices could be heard. Vax risked standing close enough to be seen to hear better.

“-would have called me by now,” a male voice was saying from inside. “Even if she doesn’t have her cell, she would’ve found a payphone or  _ something. _ ”

“The police said they’d look,” Keyleth’s voice replied. “She might have just gone off with Percy to help him get over the Briarwoods thing.”

“You said that. And  _ I  _ said Vex wouldn’t do that, not without leaving a note or  _ something.  _ Percy didn’t even take his phone!” 

Oh, right, the phone. Other Percy had asked Vax to grab it for him. Vax peeked through the window into the still-empty kitchen. There was a rectangular-ish thing on the counter near the door which could have been the thing in question. Was it unwise to steal from the people he was trying to get a message to and ally with?

Before he could change his mind, Vax knocked on the window. There was a strange mesh screen in the way, but he put enough force behind it to produce a loud-ish dull sound. The conversation inside ceased.

Keyleth peeked into the kitchen. She looked strange without her ever-present antlered circlet, wearing instead a soft-looking grey hat with embroidered flowers. As her gaze swept across the room, her eyes skipped past Vax - then she startled, zeroing back in on him and staring with wide eyes.

Vax gave her a small wave. 

Keyleth backed slowly out of the room. Very quiet, hurried conversation reached Vax’s ears faintly. Abruptly, a very familiar-looking man flung himself into the room, very human in appearance but in every other respect identical to Vax himself even more so than Vex was. Which was weird. 

They stared at each other, Other Vax wide-eyed like Keyleth, until Vax got tired of it and said “Well, are you going to open the window or are you going to stand there all night?”

“What the fuck,” Other Vax said. “What the  _ actual  _ fuck.”

“Is it that weird? You’ve had  _ Pike  _ here before, you’ve at least got a frame of reference.”

“Pike?” Other Vax repeated, brow crinkling. Keyleth was edging into the room again, looking between the two of them and holding an oddly shaped wooden club. “What’s she got to do with you?”

Vax arched an eyebrow and gestured at the level of the windowsill. “Yea high, armor? Met you briefly? Pretty memorable?”

Realization flashed across both Other Vax’s and Keyleth’s faces, and they exchanged a quick glance. 

“You’re from that Pike’s world?” Keyleth said aloud. “What are you doing here?”

“Funny story,” Vax said flatly. “You wanna open the window anytime, or...?” He gestured wordlessly at it.

Other Vax glanced back at Keyleth again. She shrugged exaggeratedly, still gripping the club. 

“There’s a door on the roof,” Other Vax said at length. “Easier than taking out the window screen.” He strode out of the room without waiting for an answer.

“The  _ roof? _ ” Vax repeated. Surely he couldn’t have heard that right. Keyleth helpfully pointed up as she followed Other Vax out.

Who put a door on the  _ roof?  _

* * *

 

The roof had all sorts of stuff, mostly metal and all of an inscrutable purpose. There was indeed a door, leading into a small room that probably housed only a staircase. Vax made it up before either of the other two and sat on the edge of the building, kicking his heels against the roof - now the floor. Buildings in Other Emon were very strange, he decided. All the roof seemed good for was collecting a  _ lot  _ of water when it rained.

When Other Vax emerged, it was warily, like he wasn’t sure whether or not he was being led into a trap. Vax stood, attracting his attention.

“Is that Percy’s jacket?” He asked.

“Yeah.” Vax didn’t see the point in lying. “He said it would probably attract less attention than what I usually wear.”

“You’ve seen Percy?” Keyleth demanded, shoving Vax to the side to burst out of the door. “Where? How?”

“How d’you think? The two of them stumbled over to our side of that portal.” 

“You’ve seen Vex?” Other Vax’s attention sharpened to a fine point. “Why would she go to your side?”

“It was the best option, the way she told me,” Vax replied. “She said she and Percy had gone out for a walk in that woodsy area when they were jumped by Ripley and her men.”

“Who’s  _ Ripley?” _

__ “You don’t know?” Vax asked, genuinely surprised. “Huh. I guess some things aren’t universal.”

“Feel like answering some way other than riddles?” Other Vax asked through gritted teeth.

“Ripley’s one of the Briarwoods’ cronies.” Other Vax’s face twisted in frustration and angry surprise. “Yeah, me too, buddy. We had some dealings with her in the past, and none of it was fun. She’s clever enough to be pretty damn dangerous. I dunno what dealings she’s had with the Briarwoods on this side, or why she’s so pissed at Percy for testifying, but she was angry enough to shoot him for it.”

Keyleth sucked in a sharp breath. “Is he okay?”

“No, we just let him walk around for a full day bleeding out,” Vax said sarcastically. “Who do you think I am? It’s Percy. He’s fine. So is Vex.”

Other Vax relaxed minisculely. “Not shot?”

“No. She said to tell you that you better not have been making Trinket sleep on the sofa.”

Other Vax relaxed all the way, shoulders slumping as the breath is punched out of him from the sheer force of relief. Keyleth put a hand on his shoulder, but her gaze didn’t move from Vax.

“Is that all you’re here for?”

“No,” Vax said. “To tell you they were okay, and to warn you, probably. On the subject, what are these?” He took out the double-telescope thing that the spy had had.

“Binoculars?” Keyleth sounded confused. “If you don’t know what they are, why do you have them?”

“I took them,” Vax said, “Off a woman sitting on the roof across the street who had several other pieces of equipment that looked a lot like they were being used for spying on you.”

As one, Keyleth and Other Vax turned towards the building across the street.

“Probably in Ripley’s pay,” Vax offered to their backs. “She’d know Percy and Vex, which means she’s at least aware of you two. Maybe waiting for them to show up again after they disappeared into the woods.”

“If she’s watching right now-” Other Vax began warily.

“She’s not.”

Other Vax turned to look at him, narrow and calculating. Whatever he saw in Vax’s face must have been agreeable, and wasn’t it weird to be so thoroughly judged by himself, but Other Vax nodded sharply.

“At least it’s not the Clasp,” Other Vax said.

“I’d rather have the Clasp than Ripley, honestly,” Vax said. He stuck one hand in the pocket of the coat, feeling the shape of a dagger underneath his hand. “Ripley’s unpredictable, especially since we don’t know  _ why  _ she’s pissed at Percy.” 

“Do you have anything to offer other than ‘here’s a mysterious lady you’ve never heard of who’s gunning for you because of a random dude you helped’?” Keyleth asked, sounding a little annoyed. Vax didn’t take it personally; she was probably freaked out by the idea of being watched. 

“Not really,” Vax admitted. “If all goes to plan, though, she’ll end up on our side and we’ll take it from there.”

Keyleth threw a confused glance at Other Vax, who didn’t notice.

“I’m coming with you,” Other Vax said.

“...What?”

“My  _ sister  _ is on your side of that portal. I’m coming with you when you go back.” 

Vax scrutinized Other Vax. It was himself, technically, but Other Vax, while not completely lacking in muscles, didn’t exactly appear to be at the same skill level as Vax. Neither did Keyleth, even with how she’d (hesitantly) wielded a weapon before. 

“It’ll be dangerous,” he said.

“What a surprise,” Other Vax said flatly. “We’re being spied on by a lady who shot my friend and it’s  _ dangerous. _ What’s your plan?”

Vax weighed the pros of telling him against the cons. “I’ll tell you inside,” he said. “There might be someone hanging around I missed.”

* * *

 

Other Vax’s apartment was messy, and it looked lived in. Vax had never had the luxury of somewhere permanent to stay - not after he and Vex left Syngorn, anyway. His mother’s house in Byroden had been cramped, and they hadn’t had much, and everything he’d owned in Syngorn had been some stiff, polished piece of furniture or room accessory that belonged to his father. The only permanent things Vax had ever owned were clothes, weapons, magic items, and occasionally food. But if he’d had somewhere to stay for good, he thought it might have ended up looking like Other Vax’s apartment. Minus all the weird, shiny machines.

There was a rectangle-ish thing with a shiny case that had a blue painting on it with a yellow star. Vax picked it up, recognizing it from the description Other Percy had given him of his phone.  The other side was shinier, black, and blank. 

“We may technically be the same person, but that’s still not yours,” Other Vax said flatly, closing the door behind him. Keyleth lingered awkwardly in the gap between them. 

“I know,” Vax said. “Percy asked me to get it for him.” He pulled the white cord out of the bottom, relieved when it separated cleanly with only a little resistance, and tucked the phone into a coat pocket. If he forgot to hand it over, Other Percy would find it there, at least. 

“So you’re doing that, and...what else?” Keyleth asked warily. 

“There were some plans made regarding Ripley.” Plans made  _ very  _ rapidly over breakfast, but when had they ever done much more than that, aside from the Conclave and Vecna? Again, Vax felt the outline of a dagger through the inside of the pocket. It was reassuring. “I’m fairly sneaky, and fast. If I could get one of Ripley’s men to follow me back through, we could corner ‘em and make her interested enough to come through herself. Then, we surprise her.”

“You want to fight Ripley?” Other Vax sounded skeptical.

“We’ve done it before,” Vax said. “Can’t be worse than the last two times couple of times we tangled with our version of her.”

“You just got done telling us she was dangerous-”

“She  _ is  _ dangerous, _ ”  _ Vax snapped. “So am I. Believe me, the bar for ‘worse than the last time we fought Ripley’ is pretty damn high, considering we had about eight near-death experiences between the six of us.”

“And you want to fight her again?” Keyleth’s eyebrows had shot up.

“If  _ you’d  _ like to deal with her, by all means.” Vax gestured widely, rolling his eyes. “ _ I  _ figured we were offering ‘cause we’re used to fighting shitty people, but if you want to take her to court with whatever you’ve got to get her with legally, go right ahead.” Vax turned his back on the two of them to ‘examine the bookshelf’, but mostly because he was getting sick of arguing with himself. All the books looked to be in Common, but there was one that advertised learning Marquetian, which was an interesting choice. 

Footsteps retreated away from him into another room, and a door closed. Even with his elvish ancestry, Vax could only make out hushed murmurs from the other side. 

He hoped they made up their minds soon. He had a feeling Ripley would only take so long to figure out the portal on her own.

* * *

 

The nature preserve, when Vax reentered it, was dark and contained far fewer people. 

“I don’t see how we’re supposed to attract anybody’s attention here,” Other Vax said as they crossed into the shadow of the trees. 

“We’ve been followed for the last three blocks,” Vax replied in an undertone. He paused while they were still only just past the treeline, taking out the leather tie that held his hair to put it up in his usual ponytail. Other Vax gave him a confused look.

“Is now the time?” He asked

“Might as well make sure we’ve got people’s attention,” Vax replied, grinning and gesturing at his ears. Other Vax’s eyes glanced over them, but by the time he registered their rounded point, Vax was already moving on.

Vax’s ears were good for more than just attracting attention - they were very good at catching the smallest noises. He could hear the quiet footsteps (just one pair) about ten feet behind them, keeping a steady pace. They were the faintest echo of his and Other Vax’s crunchy, leaf-strewn steps. 

“This way,” Vax said when they came closer, pointing out the right path and saying it out loud just in case their tail couldn’t see. “It’s difficult to see until you’re through it.”

Other Vax gave him a very pointed sort of look - one that questioned whether Vax knew what he was doing. Vax smiled, and said in an undertone, “Trust me.”

“...Point the way,” Other Vax said. “I’ll follow you.”

Vax said, still in an undertone, “When we go through, start running and don’t stop until I tell you to.”

Other Vax nodded.

Vax led him through.

As soon as Vax’s boots touched the snow, he took off at a sprint. Forethought for Other Vax’s situation barely stopped him from activating the Boots of Haste, but he was still fleet as ever; Other Vax kept up admirably, but still lagged behind.

Only a few seconds had passed before Vax heard a voice whisper into his ear,  _ “We’ve got him!” _ Vex sounded triumphant. Vax skidded to a halt, holding an arm out to stop Other Vax.

“What?” Other Vax demanded, breathlessly. Vax held a finger up for silence, still listening to Vex.

_ “Kynan caught him as he was starting to follow your trail,” _ Vex was saying.  _ “There’s a couple Pale Guard headed his way right now. Do you need an escort? I saw you come through with someone else.” _

“No, it’s fine,” Vax said, touching a couple fingers to his Earring. Other Vax’s forehead crinkled into confused lines. “It’s just the other me and our friend who you’ve got.”

“Are you wearing a wire?” Other Vax asked.

“What?” Vax shot him a confused look.

_ “What?”  _ Vex asked.

“Not you, him. Nevermind.” Vax turned his attention back to his sister. “Are our other visitors out here?”

_ “No. Wait a moment, and I’ll come with you, Kynan’s got this almost under control.” _

“Alright.” Vax glanced back the way they had come, lowering his hand.

“Who were you talking to?” Other Vax asked.

“Vex.  _ My  _ Vex. She was part of the plan.” Vax looked around for somewhere to sit. “She’ll be here in a sec.”

“What  _ was  _ your plan?” Other Vax was looking around too, taking the moment of stillness to take in the thick, snowy forest. 

“I was going to go through and warn you, and attract attention so someone would follow me back,” Vax replied. “Once we did that, we’d get Kynan to warn ‘em back through to their side, and hopefully they’d tell Ripley. Once Ripley gets here, we deal with her the way we dealt with our version of her.”

“Okay,” Other Vax said doubtfully. “Why Kynan?”

“You know him? Percy put him in charge of the Riflemen; I guess someone figured without me here, he was the sneakiest and most competent.”

“That’s a  _ lot more  _ I have questions about now,” Other Vax began, and then Vex dropped out of a tree.

She was wearing her Vorugal armor, and carrying Fenthras and a quiver, but she was lightly equipped considering how much she could have been carrying. Other Vax startled, spinning around. Vax did not react; he’d heard her coming.

“So now there’s four of us,” Vex said, looking Other Vax up and down. “This is going to get confusing fast if somebody doesn’t go home soon.”

“Isn’t that what we’re trying to do anyway?” Vax asked, then added, “Hello, Kynan,” without turning around. The crunch of snow being pressed down by sturdy boots was a dead giveaway; he should know that by now. 

“Hello, Vax.” Kynan sounded disappointed. Vax turned around to find him giving Other Vax the severest side-eye he’d ever seen grace Kynan’s face. “Hi...Vax, again?”

Other Vax gave him a halfhearted wave. He was still mostly looking at Vex, a mixture of surprise and awe on his face. Vax thought it was an appropriate reaction to seeing someone as cool as Vex.

“Back to the castle, yes?” Vex asked. Other Vax immediately perked up. 

“Is that where Vex is?” He asked quickly, like he thought the answer might change if he took too long. 

“Unless something’s happened in the last five minutes,” Vex said, “which I doubt. C’mon, let’s go.”

* * *

 

Vax forgot everything - the castle, the other world, Ripley - as soon as he saw Vex again.

He was at the foot of the stairs in a heartbeat as Vex sprinted down them, nearly slapping him in the face as she threw her arms around him. Vax didn’t mind, because he was clutching her right back.

“You could have at least  _ called, _ ” Vax said, vaguely aware that people were talking behind him. Probably Fantasy Vax was explaining what had happened. 

“My phone got wrecked,” Vex said. “Sorry. I’ll borrow some gold coins from this place and we can buy a new one.”

“Gold coins, huh?” Vax leaned back without taking his hands off her to take in Vex. She was wearing strange clothes, like everyone else he’d encountered on the way up to the castle. “Are you borrowing it from the same place you got these?”

“It’s cold up here and they said I probably shouldn’t stand out too much,” Vex said. “Besides, I had to give the other you - I’ve been calling him Vax’ildan to keep you separate - my jeans so he could blend in.”

“And here I thought jeans were just a universal constant,” Vax joked. Vex laughed, even though it wasn’t that funny. 

“What are  _ you  _ doing here?” She asked. “I thought someone was just going through to get Ripley’s attention. Once everything was sorted we were going to go back-”

“You think I’d just leave you here by yourself?”

“ _ I’m  _ here, too,” Percy said, affronted, drawing Vax’s attention to where he was lurking behind Vex. 

“You don’t count,” Vax said.

“Sorry,” Vex added.

“I’m not. Don’t apologize for me.” 

“Well,” Vex said, “ _ whatever  _ happened or is going on now, I am glad to see you. It’s been weird.”

“You don’t need to tell me that twice.” Vax spared a little more attention on Percy, eyeing him up and down. “Nice makeover, by the way, Mr. Darcy.” Percy scowled at him and rolled his eyes, apparently not willing to dignify him with a response. 

Fantasy Vax brushed past the three of them to dart upstairs, loudly declaring that he was going to change out of the “uncomfortable blue pants” and back into his own perfectly good clothing. Broken apart abruptly, Vax and Vex watched him go, and then Vex turned to her brother.

“Let’s go somewhere private,” she said. “I want to tell you  _ everything. _ ”

* * *

 

Everything, indeed, was what Vex made a spirited attempt to cover. She talked all through the day - it was much earlier for her than it had been for Vax on his side - as she told him about Gilmore and Allura and Zephra and Vasselheim, Grog and Pike in the Crucible and teleportation magic and Cassandra and Whitestone. She explained Taryon to him, or tried to, though she felt as though she hadn’t done a great job of it. Vax was fascinated anyway, squished into a comfortable armchair next to the fire in the room Vex had been borrowing and showing no sign of discomfort. 

By the time Vex ran out of things to say, Vax was beginning to get tired. She knew there was a time jump backwards when crossing into the world they were currently in, and so she was just leaving to see if they could borrow a room in the castle so Vax could sleep when the door was opened from the other side.

Percival, who had opened the door, looked startled to see her so close. “Oh - sorry-”

“No, it’s fine-”

“I really didn’t mean to-”

“Did you come for a reason?” Vex interrupted the flow of apologies. “I thought you’d send a servant or something.”

“No, I have legs,” Percival replied. “And I have news.”

“Oh?” Vex heard a shuffle behind her, like someone sitting up straighter in a very soft chair. 

“Vex has realized what - well, I should back up. As Mistress of the Grey Hunt, Vex - our Vex - occasionally receives signs of a sort that tell her when one is beginning. She received one before your arrival, which she mistakenly believed referenced you, but as it turns out the problem is Ripley.”

“Ripley?” Vax said, straightening further. “What’s she have to do with whatever a Grey Hunt?”

“The Grey Hunt is a duty Vex performs in order to keep the Parchwood clear of dangers,” Percival explained. “Pelor, as the guardian deity of Whitestone, gives a sign when a Hunt is necessary; i.e., when there is danger. Because of the signs Vex has received, we believe RIpley may have made her way into the forest.”

Vex couldn’t help but startle at Percival’s bluntness. “Already?” She demanded.

“I’m not entirely surprised by it, but I thought I’d warn you.”

“What are we - you - doing about it?” Vax asked, footsteps padding up behind Vex. She glanced over her shoulder, taking in his worried face, and turned around to see Percival’s puzzled one.

“I told you,” Percival said. “Vex’ahlia is on the Hunt.”

“...Oh,” Vex said. “So, a  _ literal  _ Hunt is what you meant. With like, horses and fox hounds.”

“Generally she just brings Trinket and it works out alright,” Percival admitted.

“You let her go  _ alone?”  _ Vax sounded alarmed.

“I don’t  _ let- _ ” Percival broke off, breathing deeply, and Vex for the first time noticed the worry in his eyes. “Vex is the Mistress of the Grey Hunt. It’s  _ her  _ duty, as given to her by Pelor. Nobody else is  _ allowed  _ to intercede.” 

“Man, do you take religion seriously,” Vax said flatly. 

“I’m as much of an atheist as it is possible to be with friends who have invoked the power of their goddess to punch dragons out of the sky.” Percival’s expression didn’t so much as twitch through the entire sentence. Vex looked behind her to check if Vax was as bewildered as she was; he was already looking at her to gauge the same thing.

“So,” Vax said warily, glancing back up at Percival, “what do we do?”

“We wait,” Percival said with a pained look, “and see who walks out of the woods.”

* * *

 

The three of them who had crossed over - Vax, Vex, and Percy - hung out together in what appeared to be a disused parlor while they waited. Percival had not given them an estimate on how soon Vex’ahlia was likely to be back, and none of them had felt comfortable enough with the situation to ask.

Percy explained things to Vax, mostly, things Vex had forgotten or glossed over. He’d also apparently been privy to a conversation Percival had had with several others, about whether or not the random interplanar portal in the woods should be left open or not. Nobody had any idea about exactly  _ how  _ they would go about closing it up, if they wanted to, but neither did they want more counterparts of villains they’d already fought coming through. And then there was considering whether any more situations like Vex and Percy’s might arise (though hopefully not) where it could lend aid where aid was needed. After that, so Percy said, the conversation had derailed to discuss where the portal had even come from in the first place, and they’d disbanded without coming to a solid conclusion. 

It was near sunset before Vex’ahlia came back. None of the three of them saw her; but they heard, distantly, the door slam open, and the bearish noises that had to be coming from this world’s Trinket, and when they went to investigate there was a big hurry throughout the castle for someone to go and fetch Pike, wherever she had gotten to. 

And of course, when they were led back to the portal to go home, they saw the places where blood had fallen on the stirred-up snow. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm toying with an idea which isn't quite a continuation of this, just a similar premise. I used Vesper in a critical role based d&d campaign i'm running, so i kinda want to use her in something now, but we'll see!

**Author's Note:**

> comment, please!


End file.
